Ok, it took me 2 full days to figure this all out but in the end it is worth it!

1. Put the car up on jacks and take off both front wheels for easy access.
2. Remove the splash guards on the oil filter side and those underneath the radiator.
3. Drain the radiator as you'll have to swap out the thermostat
4. Take the charge piping off. This is a good time to check condition of the silicone hoses and clamps. I bought beefier T-bolt clamps to replace the
screw type hose clamps.
5. Loosen the belt and the belt tensioner. Take off the belt, loosen the clamp on the oil return line underneath the blower and lift out the blower assembly. Take the blower off of the V2 and remount it on the new V1 plate. I painted my plate with Duplicolor black gloss engine enamel a few days prior to this project.
6. Take the rubber hose off of the thermostat and push aside.
7. Take off the 3 nuts that hold down the thermostat and slowly pull off thermostat. Some coolant will leak out.
8. Wipe down the opening and clean off any gunk. Haynes recommends that you clean the edges with lacquer thinner.
9. Testfit the new thermostat. I tried to not cut the hose but found that I had to do it if I don't want it to kink. I cut mine right where that scratch line is on the hose.


10. Testfit the V1 plate with the new thermostat in place.


You'll note that the top bolt hole for the alternator will not be in alignment with the plate hole. I thought of loosening the second bolt that is holding the alternator but I used a crowbar and adjusted it instead. The hammer and screwdriver technique is fine too.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TURN THIS NUT, DESPITE WHAT THE HAYNES MANUAL SAYS! (They have an arrow pointing to it!)
This is tack welded to the support plate!

 

11. Note how the thermostat is now touching the alternator and engine
Here's where you'll need your Dremel to do some shaving.
View from the driver's side:

12. Start shaving the top bolt of the alternator. There's alot of shaving required so I switched from a gray grinding wheel to a reinforced cutting wheel.

I used a mirror to check the shaving progress.

 

Watching the gap reduce as I keep on dremmelling


Success!

Shaved alot!

 

Final test fit before hooking up the hose to the thermostat.


and


Now that the worst is over I can finish up!
I used Permatex RTF on the thermostat.

 

Very good Job.

Personally I used this attachment from Dremel to grind down the alternator post:


You should only have to use the Thermostat Gasket that I include in the kit for the thermostat. No other Goup should be used to seal it.

-matt

 

I found that the cutting wheel worked the best for me.

 

So basically, the dremeling of the alternator is a must in order to get the modified thermostat housing to fit after the alternator is adjusted in order to fit against the sc plate?

 

Thats why I posted this for the benefit of others who are switching from the V2 plate to the V1 plate.

 

Cool. I appreciate it. I'm gonna be doing this soon and I did not know that the alternator had to be adjusted and the and the alternator dremeled. Not really a big deal... I would have figured it out and I have a complete dremel kit, but it is nice to know what the situation is prior to starting the job.

 

At least I'll know that I saved you at least a couple of hours!

 

I was thinking about this today, and I might just take the alternator completely out and use my bench grinder to take that edge down. Doing it that way would take a minute rather than an hour with a dremel. But thanks again for the great thread.

 

That would work too...I know a few guys that did it that way

-matt

 

Actually, I believe that it would take more time for you to uninstall and reinstall the alternator than it would for you to take a dremel to it with a cutting disk Remember, you have to do several test fits to make sure it clears the thermostat. When I took the little grinding disk it took quite a while whereas the cutting wheel was so much easier. If I had to do it all over again I would have just used the cutting disk only.

 

My thoughts exactly. Unistalling and reinstalling the alternator is no easy task. It's all about having the right tools for the job. Dremel + correct attachement =FTW! Piece of cake!

Nice writeup btw BlackCAT

 

Yeah, this is a consideration. Maybe cutting disk on the dremel is the way to go.