Corner of thermostat housing broke off

CSTOVER92

MEMBER
1993 BMW 525I
250,000 MILES

While bolting the thermostat housing back onto my engine, the corner broke off of the cylinder head! I bought this beauty for $500.00 and have put a lot of hours and effort into working on it already as it has been one thing after the other. I'm about ready to give up but am still hopeful in fixing it up. So does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can do that without having to buy a new cylinder head, taking everything apart, and then rebuilding it?

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3 Replies

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,462 POSTS

Welcome back to 2CarPros. I see two options, one is replace the head, the other would be to have a welding shop TIG weld the broken pieces back together and install a stud to mount the housing onto. Both options would require the head to be removed although you might find a shop that would do it in place if you can get the area around it very clean and stand by with a fire extinguisher just in case. It's not a really high strength area so welding it back is a good option. From what I can see in the picture it looks like the bolt bottomed out in the hole and snapped the piece out.

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Thursday, July 11th, 2019 AT 10:19 PM

CSTOVER92

MEMBER
11 POSTS

Thanks, it sounds like the most cost efficient way to handle this would be welding it back together. Someone else suggested putting the other bolts in and sealing the rest of the seam with something like a high temperature metal epoxy. Any thoughts?

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Thursday, July 11th, 2019 AT 10:29 PM

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,462 POSTS

The way that housing is made and the bolt locations on it needs all the bolts to clamp the gasket I doubt gluing it in place will keep it from leaking. Welding it will put it back to original condition.

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Friday, July 12th, 2019 AT 7:18 AM