I tried tightening it down from light to too much, didn't matter. Sanded housing flat, filed the intake, never had these issues that I remember from working at a garage for awhile in the late 60's, early 70's. The o-ringed housing is the fix, I have never had to mess with the damn thing since. Torqued in inch lbs, don't remember how much, not out in the garage.
Same here but with the Real Gasket. I did not do much to the manifold but block of wood with sand paper on it and a new repo cast Al t-stat housing. Installed it dry and 25 inch lbs or what ever it is. and not a drop since 2017 and 16 lb cap.
Something I also did was to be sure there was nothing in the T-Stat mounting holes and that the bolts can bottom on the housing without a gasket before they bottom in the hole. I suspect several leaking T-stat housings, that is the #1 issue, tightening against the bottom of the hole not the housing.
