I'm putting in a 180 tstat, and got the o-ring and tstat, and when I popped the housing off, there'* the paper gasket, so I think, nuts, why didn't the parts LADY give me one, I'll have to go get one, so I scraped it off and started calling. No one in town carries it, it'* special order!! There must be 3 trillion of these engines on the streets of America and the gasket is special order???? So I'm assuming most guys must leave the old gasket in place??? At this point it'* too late for mine.
I'll either get it from the dealer or make one... but I suppose because of the Dex-crap stuff that you can't use ordinary gasket material???
I hate it when a 10 minute job turns into 4 hour ordeal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

umm well i asked about the gasket and oring for a 92 and they didnt know anyhting bout a oring....however this was just some parts guy. i just bought the t-stat and the 10 cent gasket slappled it in..they had tons of gaskets beside all the tstats just had to lookin the book and match numbers

Well, I'm off to the dealership, for a $1.50 gasket. He said he had two in stock. I guess I should have left the old one in place, but it did tear a little when I popped the housing off.

Ask for the gasket for a LeSabre 92-99, or park avenue.....everyone should have them. They just don't always list them for the pontiacs. Go figure.

Actually, I was asking for a gasket for a '96 Olds 88...
I went to the dealer and picked one up for $1.50, and he only had 2 in stock.
There must be a billion 3800'* on the streets, I can't believe they don't have a dump truck full of them.

The 180 Tstat is in, and it runs cooler!!!
Yee haa.
But I've already been using coolant before this, and I noticed the dreaded coolant in the nooks and crannies around the plastic intake manifold...
Does this mean a new intake gasket or a new intake upper manifold????????

That'* funny, I had that problem too. Nobody stocked the paper gasket, so I had to go to the dealer. Good thing they were open.

The Tstats on these engines must go bad so rarely that parts stores can't justify stocking the gaskets.

Same thing happened to me. The kid at the parts store told me that I only needed an o-ring gasket, and that he was out of stock. I assumed that the o-ring could be reused, same as the one in my Ranger truck.
I soon found out that a paper gasket was needed. Had I not had backup vehicles, I would have truly been mad, since the thermostat housing was off and the old gasket was ruined.
Fortunately for me, I sell custom fabricated gaskets, among other things. I just drove my truck the short distance to my place of business and made my own gasket in about 5 minutes.

When changing the t-stat are we supposed to change the paper gasket? When I put my 180 in last week I just unbolted the coolant elbow, pulled out the old t-stat and o-ring and then dropped in the 180 with a new rubber o-ring and bolted the coolant elbow back on. I didn't know they had a paper gasket, nor did I see one (didn't look for one anyhow). I haven't noticed any coolant leaking, but that may come yet. Should I go get a paper gasket or just let it be? I would assume at $1.50 I should just go get one being as it is much cheaper insurance than having to replace a head gasket or worse yet the motor. Anyhow let me know.

I guess my advice would be a twist on an old expression: "If it ain't leaking, don't fix it!"

If it was going to leak, it probably would have right off the bat. The old gasket was there, you just didn't notice it, and it stayed nicely on the intake manifold, kind of like when you twist an Oreo double stuff and all the cream stays on one cookie. Do you remember a couple of orange lines on either side of the tstat hole? Those are on the gasket.
Just watch it for any leaks, and if it'* dry around the tstat housing, don't mess with it. I probably could've done the same thing, but part of the gasket came off with the housing, so I started scraping the rest of it off, and living 5 blocks from a parts store, and assuming ANY parts store in America would have a dozen gaskets for our engine... I assumed wrong.