Found the problem

The contnuing saga of my leaking coolant has been diagnosed. It appears that the chinese made Stant thermostat failed in such a way that it allowed the enging to overheat while maintaining the fluid temp at the sensor at the correct level. There is an extension on the thermal actuator that closes the coolant bypass when the engine gets warm. This extension was stuck on with solder which failed and allowed the bypass to remain open at all times. The continuing overheat cycling then caused a crack in the head.

Bob in Lake Havasu

Wow, I would mail it to Stant and ask if they would like to contribute to the cost of your new cylinder head. @#$%@#$^@Chinese crap is just ruining the after market car part industry. I wouldn't be surprised if Chinese disc brake rotors are radioactive.


From the Stant website:

Quality
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Stant has earned multiple quality awards in the automotive, industrial, and aftermarket industries and is TS16949 and ISO 14001 certified. Stant's Quality System focuses on customer satisfaction and continual improvement. Key customer satisfaction metrics are monitored closely and improvement goals are established on an annual basis.

Improvement tools utilized include:


Internal Auditing, Lean Sigma, QOS, Kaizen Events, Shainin, DMAIC, and Lessons Learned.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2013 09:55PM by alanrw.

Quality management procedures don't mean the products are inherently "good", only that the quality is monitored and measures are taken to avoid recurrent problems or improve the product or the process.

I had the engine mount of the mercedes w124 fail after only 3000km, not fun. Had my money back, but still tehy didn't pay the hassle to have it back in shop.

That's s*cks... Do you mean the malfunction was already there from the start? And was it caused by Stant? In that case I'd try to make them pay for the head and labour.

Quote
Bob in Everett
The contnuing saga of my leaking coolant has been diagnosed. It appears that the chinese made Stant thermostat failed in such a way that it allowed the enging to overheat while maintaining the fluid temp at the sensor at the correct level. There is an extension on the thermal actuator that closes the coolant bypass when the engine gets warm. This extension was stuck on with solder which failed and allowed the bypass to remain open at all times. The continuing overheat cycling then caused a crack in the head.

I guess you were unlucky.
I had to replace a thermost and I bought it from the local BMW dealer. It failed in less than three months. Whatever they did to hold the plunger and spring together let go closing the thermostat tight. When I got to taking the t-housing off; I found all the loose parts...except for the retaining washer/ring that was supposed to keep the plunger and spring from flying apart.
The dealer was pretty much unresponsive nad simply offered me a free repalcemet t-stat. I thanked them but said no and went to a local parts distributor and got a new t-stat made in Sweden that just happened to be the same part as goes into Volvos!
Never had another problem and the missing washer from the Chines one never surfaced or caused a problem...probably just sitting at the bottom of som water jacket journal peacefully rusting away

Well, I hope the BMW part does better. It looks more sturdy than the chineese version.

Bob in Lake Havasu

The Stant company did not even respond to my e-mailed complaint to their website.

Bob in Lake Havasu