Yea....the housing still leaks. It isn't real bad, but it is enough to bug me.

The car went back to idling at 1500rpm....weird because just yesterday it was idling at 1000rpm. Now when I turn the car off, it will sputter and then backfire sometimes, then the engine will go off....it gets too much gas.

 

It's not overheating anymore. It leaks a tiny bit from the thermostat housing, but it holds fluid good now.

I'm really not sure what the problem was. I still gotta tinker with the housing so it won't leak at all, but it's good for right now. The reservoir holds all the fluid...still gotta work on the idle issue.

 

Just to update you guys....I took a trip down to Portland and back (over 300 miles round trip) The car kept losing water....filled it several times, kept filling the reservoir, etc. Got back home and I remembered that when I put in the new thermostat, that one housing bolt head broke off, so I used rtv compound on the intake manifold and on the thermostat housing itself.

Well, I noticed that the coolant leak came from the back of the housing, right by the carburetor. Then it hit me....I never cleaned out the groove that the thermostat sits in...it was caked with silicone. I cleaned that out, cleaned the housing....dropped the thermostat in, put a new gasket with silicone on.....presto. Holds every bit of water. No leak, no overheating.

One simple thing caused such a headache...