Today I replaced the thermostat on a 1994 toyota corolla. The only gasket
I could see was a rubber ring that sits on the edge of the thermostat and
gets sandwiched between the engine head and the thermostat cover.

Also in the Haynes manual they said to put the rubber ring on the
thermostat, but said nothing about any other gasket. So I'm assuming that
I am tightening up the two halves on this soft rubber ring. There was some
chalky deposite around the thermostat, Could that be the remains of some
kind of liquid rubber gasket I'm wondering?

In the Haynes manual it says to tighten to 4 ft lbs. I dont have a torque
wrench, can anyone think of a novel way that I might get some idea of what
this is, using a small socket set? (apart from a ruler and a weight of
course, which is a bit complicated).

Do mechanics in the toyota dealership use torque wrenches for such things i
wonder? I know Richard up the road, who's been working on cars for thirty
years; as far as i know only uses torque wrenches on crucial things like
cylinder heads.

I do wonder how crucial this torque setting is? Obviously I've got the idea
I'm tightening up on to rubber so must not go too mad. Any advice to a
novice gratefully received.

john royce wrote:
just use the shortest spanner and light hand pressure, the gasket will
squash till the metal bits meet, that is as tight as is needed. provided
you got a new gasket (the rubber ring) there is no need for any glue

On 3 July, 21:50, "Mrcheerful" <nbk... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:
The white stuiffs just a bit of corrosion, clean it off with a bit of
wet & dry & it'll be fine. You're not tightening onto the rubber,
it'll be squashed when the two metal surfaces touch.