Water leak

[mgv8]

I had to replace the thermostat, and the gasket was not quite right but I was thinking it would be fine, but no.
So now have to do the job properly. The question is, should I for just a paper gasket or paper and instant gasket?

[crankedup]

Fit the correct gasket, the silicone stuff eventually starts to breakdown and end up in your coolant system.

[Faust66]

I normally put the thin smear of instant gasket on one side of the paper to hold it in place whilst the 'stat housing (or whatever) is being located & bolted into place.

As Crankedup alludes, if you use a bloody great load of the stuff you may well find that it ends up in your cooling system, but using a smear won't hurt in my experience (been using this method for 20 + years).

[mgv8]

Thanks for input.
Fixing today and got 200miles to do tomorrow!

[mgv8]

Work done, and found the main problem. The wrong gasket (supplied by experts) had a bypass hole in it, where my car did not have one. Gess where the water was leaking. Homemade gasket now fits way better.

Thaks again for the advice.

[anonymous-user]

Not sure if your V8 MG has a similar thermostat to a stag but when I bought a new thermostat recently it came with a thin card type thickness gasket opposed to the one I like using which is a lot thicker which seems to compress when you do it up.

[SebringMan]

If you make your own gasket be sure that it partially cover the thermostat edging. Without this your engine will overcool.

[mgv8]

Thanks, all. It made it all the way to Le Mans and back with out a problem.