1998 Ford Explorer Thermostat Housing Replacenent

Hi, I experienced a radiator leak and a few months ago I took my car to pep boys to get looked at and they said it was a thermostat housing leak but wanted to charge me $400 for the part from ford and I said no and never got it fixed.

So I was looking around the internet and bought this kit,



It was my understanding with this kit I would take out my old housing and reuse the sensors from my old housing. I may be wrong?

After more research I see a popular option here as per JOEZ33
"RH144 (lower housing) $37, RG-614 (lower seal) $5, SW6146 (temp switch) $19, DY1004 (temp sensor) $22, sensor locking clips $7 each, and your old thermostat will drop right into the new housing.

By doing this it will be upgraded to a 2002 Sport trac version of the coolant housing. My old one is starting to leak around the metal sleeve that holds the threads which the threaded sensors screw into. The upgraded one no longer uses threads, and eliminates that possibility of leaks."

Now, I wish I had read all that before buying the kit I bought but is there any reason the kit I bought wouldnt work?

Also, is the following guide found here a correct guide I should follow for my 98 sohc explorer?

Thanks alot for the help, I do not know much about this but thanks to this forum I had changed out my sway bar bolts last week with much success, which is a much easier job than this but I am making my way towards the harder stuff.

hmm, not quite the look I was helping for

That kit will work fine. From what I have learned people like to update to the new sensors to avoid having them seize to the brass bushings. If they seize and you have to remove them the bushings will spin ruining the upper housing. I just went through this because my bypass hose had a hole in it. I tried to remove the sensors and only applied a little pressure and could tell they were not going to come out easily. Put it back together and all is good. You may want to put antiseize on the sensors prior to installing them.

Ed