I agree Shep, Thats the logical way to do it.
The thermostat housing though has very poor access and several pipes
and sensors coming out of the housing itself, and just below. You can`t
even see the bottom housing bolt that fastens it to the block and it
looks as though all those pipes on the housing would have to come off
to be able to pull the housing away sufficiently to get the thermostat
out. Needless to say, those pipes are held on by hose clips that have
to be destroyed to get them off. I also have a certain reluctance to
deal with the bolts on the thermostat housing that go into the alloy
head. If one had a damaged thread it would be an engine out job to get
a thread insert fitted...
Overcautious perhaps... But I have had 2 experiences over the years
where bolts into alloy have been been cross threaded at the factory
and power tooled in...
Your suggestion is similar to good advice I received on UK forums, and
I have just done the job, taking the best part of a day on two cars.
Now its fresh antifreeze though. I was wondering whether anyone on the
US forums did partial, regular changes, with ethylene glycol (the easy
wayand if so what the results are.
Thanks anyway for the response.