Hi everyone, good to be on board. Been a Ford owner since around ‘92 when I purchased a year old Taurus with the Essex engine. That was a big disappointment when the head gasket blew. I’ve since heard this was pretty common with the Essex engine. Not having learned my lesson 😁 I then bought a 2003 Taurus with the Duratec 3.0 engine. What a great reliable car it has been with 129k miles to date with only minimal routine maintenance.

I have found myself with the need to replace the thermostat body. So far all the parts counters have told me I am out of luck and my best option is the junkyard. Seems at some point Ford made changes the the cooling system and that the part I need is no longer available.

Here is the thermostat assembly installed in my Taurus:





All the parts houses show this as the available part:




If I am unable to locate the original part I may be forced to buy the revised part. However, it obviously isn’t going to fit into my existing coolant system without possibly purchasing some additional parts upstream and downstream from the original thermostat assembly. Is there a good cooling system diagram somewhere that might help me figure out all the needed parts?

Thanks much,
Steve