I have some time off coming up, and have also managed to put together a nice little pile of stuff to keep me occupied with the '08 Sebring.

I either have, or have coming, the following:
Front brake rotors/pads/fluid,
Thermostat housing/thermostat/heater hoses,
Oil/filter

Should make for a fun weekend... assuming nothing unforeseen goes wrong.

I have a little bit of time before all this, so should I go ahead and grab new radiator hoses and/or the water temp sensor? Just to be thorough...?

 

Upon further research, I ordered another thermostat, as apparently the Sebring has two of them. I had already got a 180° Mishimoto thermostat for this, so I ordered a 160° Mishimoto for the other one.

To my new knowledge, the primary thermostat (located completely inside the housing) is supposed to open at a lower temp than the secondary thermostat (sandwiched between the housing and engine)... I already happened to have the 160° & 180° Mishimoto part numbers in my notes, so that's what I went with. If all else fails, I can always use the thermostats that came with housing, it already included two new ones. Lol.

Also ordered a Mishimoto magnetic oil drain plug, since I was already on their website and will be changing the oil anyways. And I went ahead and ordered a new coolant temp sensor.

I think that's it about it... for now. I will be disconnecting the battery when I install everything, and resetting the short term memory so it goes into rapid learning mode, or whatever. Take it for a nice cruise to seat the brakes and let it learn... or start learning... pretty sure I need to drive more than 50 miles that first little trip for the computer to do its business.

 

Another order to Mishimoto for a catch can. And another order to AutoZone for a PVC valve...

If I had just been smarter, I could have probably gotten away with just one order to each, instead of several orders to both. Wasted a bunch of money paying shipping on things that could have easily shared a box.

Oh well, scope creep is expensive, but it will be good to have it done.

 

Ordered a Mopar front shock tower brace for a convenient place to mount the catch can. Lol. I wanted a shock tower brace, anyways, so whatever. That will kill two birds with one stone (and a handful of cash).

If that brace even remotely does what it's supposed to, then it will be well worth the investment. Probably going to shine a spotlight on all the bushings that likely need replaced. I know the front and rear engine mounts are toast. Good thing Deyeme Racing still makes poly versions of those.

It never ends...

 

Changed the oil today... 201,693 miles on the engine... unknown miles on unknown oil that was in there. It was black as sin, but still ran like water.

After grabbing my sample for Blackstone, I dumped in two fresh quarts of Pennzoil Premium 5w-20 to help flush the old oil. Let all that drain until it stopped dripping. Replaced the factory drain plug with a Mishimoto magnetic piece.

Ended up going with a WIX 57045XP instead of the Ford Racing filter I had purchased earlier. The 57045XP fit perfectly using the exact same filter socket I used to take off the no-name "M48" filter that was there. The 57045XP is just a lot taller... I should have taken pictures, but I didn't.

Topped her off with ~4.75qts of Pennzoil Premium Ultra 5w-20, and did the little reset nonsense for the computer. So far so good... just need to send the sample off to Blackstone.

I am still waiting on the shock tower brace, and will install the catch can and new PCV valve when the brace comes in.

 

Changed the front brakes today... StopTech cyro/slotted rotors and Hawk HPS pads. What a difference. Should definitely hold me over while I collect everything to convert the rear drums to discs.

The rotors that were on there were especially gross. Looks like a wear indicator wore a trench into one side of the driver side rotor... which is funny, because there were no squeal clips on any of the pads that were on there. Can those clips come off and possibly get wedged between the pad/rotor long enough to cut a groove in the rotor? Could the clip come off without damaging the pad, because the pads were in surprisingly good condition... I am guessing it was the pads before these that messed up the rotors, and whatever genius replaced the last pads cannot identify toasted rotors when they see them. Who knows? Who cares? At this point, they are replaced and I can watch them.

By the way, which pin goes where? When I took everything apart, one side had the pin with the O-ring thingy on the top position, and the other side had the pin with the O-ring on the bottom. Madness, I tell you. I installed both pins with the O-rings in the bottom position on both sides. And, obviously, the pins without O-ring thingies in the top position on both sides. Don't know if that was correct, or if there is a "correct", but it seems to be working thusfar. If it is important that they be switched, I can go back in there and do that easily enough, but it wasn't important enough to the last person who put them in...

 

I couldn't wait for the shock tower brace to come in, so I went to home depot and got some aluminum angle stock to mount the catch can.

I undid two of the plastic rivets in the passenger side pinch weld above the firewall, and made aligned holes in my piece of angle stock. Before bolting the piece of angle stock in place, I mounted the mounting ring that came with my catch can, then used 1/4" bolts/washers/nuts to afix the angle stock to the pinch weld/firewall/cowl area.

I rotated the catch can to align the ports best I could, and bolted the can to its mounting ring. The outlet port of of the can ends up with a straight shot to hook up to the PCV tube that comes out from behind the intake... I didn't have to modify the PCV tube in any way. The inlet port to the can gives a pretty nice sweeping loop to the hose so it can connect to the PCV valve... I replaced the PCV valve with a new one while I was in there.

Be careful to "clock" your hose clamps so they do not make contact with anything... especially the nearby hoses themselves. I had to do some loosening and retightening of some clamps to eliminate contact. I also put in a spacer made of some of the extra hose cut lengthwise to go over/between the two hoses where they contact each other.

After a few miles, I went in and tightened everything again to be sure. Send it.

 

a work vacation

 

Just replaced the thermostat housing today... got a new coolant temp sensor while I was in there. The new housing required 2009+ heater hoses, so it has new heater hoses, too.

The Mishimoto 2007 Patriot 160° thermostat is the "correct" primary replacement. The Mishimoto 2010 Evolution 160° thermostat lacks the little breather hole that the OEM 180° primary thermostat has.

I ended up taking a dremel to the Mishimoto 2003 Wrangler 180° thermostat to get it to fit right... I don't know if it was my Motorad thermostat housing, or what... the thermostat would fit without the gasket, and the gasket would fit without the thermostat... anyways, it's all in there now.

The OEM primary is 180° and the secondary is 200°... I lowered both by the same amount, but kept the high/low relationship between the two. My primary is 160° and the secondary is now 180°...

I let her idle with the heater on until she was blowing hot air, and the radiator fans kicked on. No dash lights. No codes. No leaks. Send it.

 

Was taking the girls to the park after replacing the thermostat housing, and my upper radiator hose failed at the cap junction. The junction, itself, broke... leaving the barb inside the hose with the clamp still attached.

Limped her to the auto parts store with the girls still tagging along, bought a new hose, went home and installed it. Still got the girls to the park, but d@mn, if it's not one thing, it's another. I had been thinking about doing radiator hoses with the thermostat housing just to be thorough... life has a way of forcing one's hand sometimes...