My thermostat had no gasket?

[silviaz]

I just noticed something odd. I went to flush the coolant out of my car and noticed after removing the thermostat to see if additional coolant would come out that there was no gasket, only some gooey rtv sorta stuff but it was rather thin. No rubber surrounding the lip of the thermostat. Is this normal? It's starting to leak also after putting it back lol. Not sure if I should get a rubber gasket considering most cars have this (it's for a subaru as well), or just get some permatex rtv stuff?

My car previously didn't leak at the thermostat.

[Milkmun]

Clean both surfaces and apply fresh rtv.

[silviaz]

32 minutes ago, Milkmun said:

Clean both surfaces and apply fresh rtv.

Will do, cheers.

[silviaz]

40 minutes ago, Milkmun said:

Clean both surfaces and apply fresh rtv.

Nvm ignore this I read it wrong

Edited December 26, 2024 by silviaz

[silviaz]

13 hours ago, Milkmun said:

Clean both surfaces and apply fresh rtv.

I'm an idiot, turns out there was a gasket it was just stuck on the block lol. 

[Duncan]

On 27/12/2024 at 11:53 AM, silviaz said:

I'm an idiot, turns out there was a gasket it was just stuck on the block lol. 

But, probably that happened to the last person too, which is why the RTV was there.....if you aren't putting a new gasket in you will need to seal the old gasket back to the metal surface with something, the gaskets will generally only work properly for a single use as they set/harden in that shape