Going to install it hopefully this weekend. Btw it came with rubber ring to go on , do I need to apply any material to this ?

I ended up buying a "gates" brand from rock-auto. About to test it in water. Something very curious is I appears like the side has been grinded, and I swear they grinded away a brand.... there appears to be a "ring" imprinted that didn't get grinded. Anyone ever see this before!?

 

The dorman one on RockAuto has a made in China raised lettering section right around there. Someone is switching brands / substituting. One of the possible explanations lies in the fact that RockAuto drop ships the vast majority of their parts. They rely on people that warehouse these parts, whether it be aftermarket or OEM, to fulfill their orders. It is therefore possible that this kind of nonsense can occur if somewhere along the line the parts are messed with. Can't even necessarily blame the person who has it now and ships it to you, because they may be the third or fourth owner of the part, having bought it from a clean out of somebody else's inventory, and no one checks every box for correct contents. As far as I can tell the picture of the dorman doesn't even have a dorman logo on it anywhere. I'm beginning to think that these are all made by one manufacturer and then sold under different brand names. I can't tell you which is which cuz I simply don't know. Motor rad I believe labels them up the side with the full name so it doesn't look like it's for a motorad setup which likely means the thermostat that came with it is not a motorad. Maybe. I would just go with what you have. Don't touch any of the surfaces with your fingers. I've been told oil from your hands can affect the operation of the thermostat. I would take a picture of that and contact RockAuto service customer service and ask them what the f is going on with the parts they sell? Clearly it has been handled and modified to disguise its true identity. Just play dumb about how they actually get you the part. That's just unacceptable in my book. I don't care if it's the same exact part I get by ordering a different brand. Somebody undoubtedly swapped something so that they could sell a less expensive part for more.

Like I said just go with it and see if what you have functions properly because at the end of the day that's what matters.

 

I did not use any substance on the o-ring. I believe the mating portion to the housing contains a recess for the o ring to sit in.

Andy has been doing this a long time, and he may have different advice.

 

I did test it in water and it functioned at least. But yeah... depressing to see such a thing. I suppose it is hard to prove though that it is actually tampered with, might claim its normal! lol

Ended up having a mechanic do the work, since I realized I probably should do a coolant flush and I was afraid of such a mess in the garage or something going wrong being my first attempt at such a thing, very few days off and weather is getting freezing in my state.

I am a bit concerned though, I made sure to tell them to flush the heater core too ect, total flush. But they did it in probably less than an hour, and when I go under and inspect the nut that is supposed to be removed in addition to the plastic plug, only the plastic plug is wet. I think they ignored the additional nut underneath the thermostat... $170 Not sure if worth bugging them further about it or not. I am just worried if they ran water through it and didn't remove both plugs, would there be too much water in system or not totally drained?

The engine heat is going to middle now at least, engine no longer running always cold. Is there anything I should do post their work that should ensure no other problems? Do I run it on high heat through air with collant cap off to remove any more bubbles? Getting paranoid got jipped

 

Did they verify that your coolant was good to -40. That is the standard for 50/50 coolant and water. I would ask if it is not on the invoice.