Thermostat swap

does someone have, or could someone post a how to on how to change the thermostat on our 4th gens? i'm feeling more and more comfortable doing my own simple jobs on the truck. i hear that the thermostats are fairly simple to change as well, but don't have the slightest clue how to do this. any help/pics are greatly appreciated

Im not sure with the 4th gens. But for my 05 its 2 bolts and thats it.

The radiator hose that sends water to the block, should be at the top right of the radiator. Just follow that hose till you see a metal peice that is connect to the block. That should have the 2 screws. Just remove them and your tstat should be sitting in the hole. Before you unscrew them take the radiator hose off. Itll make it 10times easier. I decided to leave it on. When putting the screws on i cross threaded them. And trust me it is a TOTAL PITA to fix.

Also just know you will lose some coolant while doing this. Pick some up from the dealership.
With the truck off fill the radiator with coolant till it reaches the top of the radiator. Keep the cap to the radiator off and start the truck and wait till it gets to the temp set on the tstat. You will see the coolant drqin a little. That just means there is air in the block. Just add coolant till you cant add any more.

Hope this helps!

Great explanation!!.... I'm going to try it this weekend or Monday.

sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3

Not to scare anyone, You shouldn't have any airlock issues just changing the stat but watch your gauge and if it goes past half and your upper hose is limp then shut her down and proceed from there. At this point you would get a red light normally never seen that says CHECK GUAGES.

There is also a drain valve at the bottom of the radiator which will make this a much cleaner swap. If you just disconnect the radiator hose directly from the block, you will have quite a bit of coolant come out. And this is common sense, but make sure the engine is cool before doing this. Nothing worse than boiling hot coolant being sprayed in your face...ask me how I know this...haha.

so drain out the radiator before disconnecting the radiator hose from the block?

At least draining the rad should get you low enough to keep it from messing up top when doing the swap. If I am doing a complete flush of the system I have in the past even removed the block plugs, one each side of the block and with that you almost get it all out, but like Hemi450 said use the valve. Mine is on the drivers since the pass side is where the lower hose to waterpump goes. It doesn't come out but kinda like a full turn and you have full drain. I use Baby Vise grips straight on then a big twist and it goes to the out/Drain Position. Lastly don't overtighten or crossthread your T-Stat Bolts as it is into Aluminum (Water Pump Actually on 3rd Gen anyways).

cool cool.... thanks guys

It was buried a little back in the DIY section but here's a write up I did just in case anyone asked for one

http://www.ramforum.com/f75/how-repalce-t-stat-17225/#post319953

Can y'all tell a dumb guy what's the gain of swapping. Is it just so it's more accurate. Are the OEM that bad?

i was going to swap to a 180 degree thermostat so that my engine runs cooler

2K10HemiRam said:

It was buried a little back in the DIY section but here's a write up I did just in case anyone asked for one

http://www.ramforum.com/f75/how-repalce-t-stat-17225/#post319953

Click to expand...

AWESOME!!!! thanks for the info