Hi tinkerbelle,

Congrats on the cylinder head replacement. No small task by any means. Easier on rear wheel drive 4-cylinder or Volvo 164 overhead valve six cylinder.

Thank you. Glad to help. Sorry if I came across as obstinate in my reply. I do that, yet don't mean to.

Remember to have replacement gaskets on hand. I forget who makes quality air intake port to cylinder head gaskets. You probably won't have to remove the throttle body from the air intake port (manifold - we call these ports on fuel injected engines, apparently.).

Your brickboard.com is replete with procedure to test the Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor (ECT). Using an electric multimeter with continuity / resistance (ohms) function. Use the search function for:

test ECT

You would need to clean the wire harness wires you twisted together, use some durable quality heat sink, or other weather tight electrical sealing solution, to seal it all up so it thrives in the "under the air intake port (manifold) engine area for the heat, cold, grime, moisture, and dust" environment.

There is procedure to remove and replace the ECT here with a full coolant system. I sort of like to lower the coolant so the ECT securing thread meets with dry thread at the hole thread for the ECT, so you know you've applied proper torque. You do not need teflon tape. The ECT sensors each ground through the ECT body to the cylinder head. So, I guess coolant exposure is really not a worry. (Coolant is corrosive and you have dissimilar metals meeting as the ECT barrel is a more noble brass-like alloy meeting with the less-noble light aluminum alloy of the cylinder head.) I dunno the torque value.

Others here may have suggestion for use of a thread-sealing compound? I'm not sure. Hopefully someone here can help you.

And when you mix coolant, as you know, use distilled, demineralized, or deionized water. Do not ever use tap water when mixing anti-freeze with water to make coolant.

Hope that helps.

Questions?

Wednesday MacDuffy's Tavern - featuring Bing Crosby and the original radio show cast.
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