Hey all. . . my thermostat is going bad in my 3.1 and need to change it. . the job from an open hood perspective looks like it may have a few extra steps over what I was used to changing (305 carb'd z28) . . . anywho. . is there a step by step pictorial I could follow to make sure I do it properly or maybe someone could type out of their haynes manual the steps? (i cannot rationalize buying a manual when i only do minor things to it myself)

I'm not a mechanic, but do enjoy working on my car myself.

thanks in advance

-Bill

 

its real easy to change. do a search on here in the v6 board, i just typed and told some one how to do this about a week or so ago.

 

i also told someone about changing one of these a 2 weeks ago. Easyest way remove the throttle body and the plenum. gives u easy access to the thermostat (ur hands will thank you!), option 2 is harder but dont have to remove the throttle body and the plenum. hope u got a good set of swivels and small hands. i might be able to scan some pages out of a GM 1992 Camaro Service manual since i also own a 1992 good luck

 

here are those pages out of the book, sry its a little cut off but u can still get about 95% of the info from the page. the one thing i dont know is the if there is torque sequence on the plenum and probably not dont need to remove the fuel rail so just ignore those parts.

 

it was me you all helped, and i did listen. remove the plenum. the 10 bolts, ac bracket, and theres one bolt for the throttle linkage that i had too pull to, plus vac lines and the 2 throttle body coolant lines, and air intake duct. it was easy, just dont over torque and make sure the t stat is lined up in the housing right etc. i ended up breaking one of the ears off my t stat housing while torqueing and needing a new one because the t stat was off center. sounds hard but all in all it took me a few hours tinkering around, drinkin brews, and hanging with my buddys lol.

 

Thanks for the replies. . with the help of someone with small hands and a good swivel set, we managed to change it without removing anything

 

I had the fun of doing this process three times because the thermostat keeped leaking...it was fun though lol I cant imagine doing it without taking off the intake plenum.

 

10 minute job with swivels.