what's wrong

[@brianferguson6278]

With your thermostat housing being broken beyond the gasket area I am surprised you did not have the flange welded. It use to be very difficult to weld cast, yet with preheating and proper welding rods it has become very successful to repair this type of damage, with also having a controlled cooling period of the casting. The replacement was $950.00 welding would have been $100.00 or less.

[@scratchfab]

Welding was an option I considered but there were two problems with welding first the break went through one of the mounting holes and the second was the fan hangs off the thermostat housing which creates a lot of torsional stress. So in total it was a bad design to start so it didn't make sense to fix it. The fan and parts were inexpensive and gave me a better solution in the long run.

[@funone8716]

When Gov-bid says it runs, they mean when the bought it new, it ran.

[@scratchfab]

Very true, fortunately it was in a yard close to me so I had seen it in person before I purchased it. I figured I could get it running but had no idea if the hydraulics would work.