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I picked mine up locally at O'reilly's, but my Auto Zone also had one made by Mr Gasket which was nearly identical except it had an orange gasket vs grey. It was on the high performance isle at Auto Zone & up by the carb parts at O'reilly's.
Also neither store knew they had em in stock. When I walked up with it at O'reilly's the look on their faces = priceless...
LOL, I went to both places and they said they didn't have any. I'll have to go back and check the isles personally.
Saw it at my local Autozone (they had only the one on the rack). Saw the price, too. With shipping from Summit Racing, the Edelbrock part is only about $6 more. Since they've already shipped the part, I'll just eat the few bucks rather than deal with the hassle of returning it.
I used this one from summit. So far no issues at all. Thermostat is working great, nothing over 190F. Generally it swings from 177 to 188 consistently. Took a little to bleed out but coolant is sitting level now. Hood clearance is tight on mine. I cut a small 1" square out of the sound deadener and its better. I did not need to cut the shroud. If you do recheck the hose lengths and positions (direction), cutting into the shroud gets you real close to the fan.
I had a couple discussions this weekend helping people troubleshoot their overheating Discos this weekend. Both did not have the inline mod yet and of course I was recommending it. My general impression is that there is some thought that perhaps the factory engineers had a reason for the design or knew better or something of that nature. I also had a discussion with Michael Greene at West Coast British this week and he immediately knew what an improvement it was and the reason for the factory thermostat design.
LR had a very difficult time getting the D2 to pass the CA emissions requirements. They needed to get it as hot as possible as fast as possible or it would not pass the test. The test is a very rigid test that measures total grams of output of CO, NOx, and HC's. Across 50 million cars it makes a difference on the air quality in the valleys in CA, but for the individual owner it causes lots of problems. In 03 they ratcheted up the standards again, hence the restricted oil breather tube in the valve cover starting in 03. And it has steadily gotten worse. BMW and LR now use electronically controlled thermostats and often routinely run their engines in the 220 degree range with 0w20 oil, and everyone wonders why the engines blow up despite synthetic oils and full dealer service from new.
The inline thermostat mod does not allow the coolant to bypass the radiator, ever. That is a big problem with the factory style when the truck is running too hot. And of course we have all either heard or experienced the issues with out of the box defective plastic thermostats that either won't open or won't shut the bypass off. Even if you only use it to troubleshoot your cooling system, it enables you to run the engine with NO thermostat installed, just to see if the radiator is up to snuff or if you have combustion gases heating the coolant.
Typical results are a 10 degree average temperature drop, much more stable temps, and it will be the last time you worry about bleeding or the thermostat working. And if you are out on the trail and it does fail you can remove it in 5 minutes, put it back together without losing any coolant and keep on rovering.
If you are on the fence or worried about the cost, let me say this regarding my kit. It's not just lifetime guaranteed, it is satisfaction guaranteed. If you try it and don't like it, just send it back for a full refund, no problem. Lord knows I have plenty of trucks to use it on. And of course, ask the other guys on here how it works for them. I think most of them would never consider going back.
