Needs to be changed and i cant find where it is. Also how long should it take to replace?

 

Its underneath where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine. Browse through the online FSM. Should help you out.

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...7/#post5131218

 

same place as an S4 Thermostat..(sorry Joe..had to!)
Look at the plastic neck on the waterpump housing.Undo the 3 bolts there.

 

It's under the black plastic neck that connects to the upper rad hose. draining and refiling your coolant system is what takes most of the time. The bolts holding it to the water pump can break sometimes so be careful

 

The plastic neck also can get brittle. I've snapped one changing a stat, treat it gentle also

 

At the risk of sounding completely clueless, i need to drain the coolant before doing this?

 

There is a plastic screw underneath the radiator that is for draining the coolant in the radiator only, it's a Phillips head tip. Also on the driver side motor mount has a 14mm long nut that needs to be removed to drain all coolant from the engine.

 

One thing to note, you don't need to completely drain the system. You just need to get the fluid levels below the thermostat.

 

When the plastic neck is removed is it directly in the opening where the neck was?

 

Yes the thermostat is right below the neck once you remove it!

 

Yes

 

Welp. Fml.

 

To prevent that from happening again, what are the torque sp

 

To prevent that from happening again, what are the torque specs for the screws on the plastic tube after the upper rad hose?

 

ahh hate when that happens. On these cars i always found it easier to buy new hardware everytime i took something off.

 

That's a shitty feeling, I know!!

Download the FSM here

It lists many of the questions you just asked, IIRC it has torque specs on every nut and bolt.

 

So everything is back together and i burped the coolant. Ran fine at the right temp but low coolant light showed and it was a little low when i got home. Gonna top it off in a couple hours

 

I assume you got the broken bolt out and got the thermostat neck bolted down correctly?

 

Of course. Car runs great now and isnt overheating but i remain cautiously optimistic

 

I never put a bolt back in without anti-seize on it. Even suspension bolts.

 

All excellent ideas, my preferred solution to this problem is to replace the bolts with studs (the studs from a waterpump flange work perfectly).
This avoids having to repeatedly thread steel into aluminum and makes life much simpler.