[QUOTE]Originally posted by sixto
[B]That's gotta be a first. Leave them dry as long as you want. You won't damage them in any way.

Thanks Sixto, your comment was reassuring I was not sure what to think. Earlier today I had spoken to Phil (from Fast Lane) and he was not concern either, I guess the paranoid part on me took over.

Today I got to work and mention to one of my coworkers who happen to have been in one of his previous life’s a Volvo mechanic about the coolant lost and my concern for the thermostat and he said that it was best to changed the thermostat because in his experience once the thermostat gets dry they tend to sized/get stuck? Well, the rest is history I called Phil and ordered a new thermostat just in case.

It turn out that the fan belt on my car was so loose that I was able to simply pull it of from one of the top pulley’s and the rest just came off very easy. The belt was in sad shape with many cracks, it needed to be changed. I then proceeded to take off two other pulleys and two hoses to gain access to the belt tensioner, the belt tensioner shock, and the long adjusting screw. I was able to take off all of these with out major problems except for screw that holds the bottom of the shock in place which was hard to reach. I did all of this with the fan still in place because I could not figure out how to take off the viscous fan clutch without the “special tool”.

Tonight I got home and decided to try the advice of one of the forum members who had suggested to just leave the viscous fan clutch in place and to just simply remove the fan (which I did) by simply removing the three Allen screws. Tomorrow I plan to continue this odyssey (Homer will be proud of me) by bolting the new parts in place after I give a good cleaning to the front of the engine, is pretty dirty/ gluey at the moment and since I have most things off why not.


Blue

“What we do in life echoes in eternity” MAXIMUS.