Need Non-Mopar Help

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I need help with only non-Mopar I have ever owned. It is a 2000 Impala 3.4 L. The thermostat is stuck open. To repair/replace it the throttle body has to be removed. I understand it is abt a 5 hour job. Can I get away with putting an inline thermostat in the upper radiator hose? Are there inherent problems with this? I hate to pay 5 hours labor for the repair and why in the world would they design something like this? Thank you.
 
alot of chevs are not so easy to work on, the older cavaliers with coil on the back of the engine is one that comes to mind, that being said no you can't use an inline thermostat

you have to fix it properly, if you don't and the original thermostat chooses to stick shut when its freezing cold outside you'll cook your engine in no time flat
 
Shouldn't be a 5 hour job at all, I do head gaskets in them in a day start to end. Removing the throttle body shouldn't be that hard. You could always pull the top intake off . I do think you have to remove the crossover pipe heat shield(4 or 6 10mm bolts i forget now) and then get to the housing. Still a tight job but doable. Maybe shop around for quotes.

I do know the intake gaskets on them go bad and start leaking water externally or into the oil. If you get that far into intake gaskets do headgaskets. Already have all the pushrods(intake/exhaust different lengths), rockers, valve covers all off to change them. Head are one more step.

That being said all new stuff is build like this. Work everyday in a garage and cars keep getting worse.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll get some more quotes and see how it goes. It wouldn't be bad if it was summer, but I have to drive abt 25 mi before I get some heat.
 
I have been doing the cardboard thing..................dose not help much at 4deg! LOL

Thanks
 
Just did one of these on a 2002 Venture. Took about 4 hrs, and a lot of four letter words. Could do the next one in about two hrs. Don't need to remove TB, or exhaust cross over. Do need skinny fingers. Remove coolant resovior, the air filter housing, and hose to the TB. Remove the upper rad hose. Remove the front upper t-stat housing bolt, and loosen (almost to coming out) the lower rear bolt (the housing is slotted. Remove the engine "steady" brace bracket. Should be able to remove the housing and stat. When installing, it might be necessary to pry the exhaust crossover heat shield, slightly. Make sure the t-stat doesn't fall out of position. Before installing the top front bolt on the housing, put the bolts back in the engine bracket, or there is one bolt that will not go in.
 
It take about 1.5 hours if you remove the throttle body if you don't it will take about 3 hours.
The flat rate time is 2 to 2.5 hours.
More it it has California emission ,I've never see one so I don't know what the difference is.
 
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