Thermostat

[Ride Ibiza]

I have a mk5 smiley 2.5 di banana engine. Thermostat seal went. Went to Ford. Ordered new one. Got home took apart to find genuine seal has a form It is circular but with notches in three places correlating to the seal recess. Garage gave me a plain circular cyclindrical seal. oreder via VIN number. So now i'm stuck as seal is very slightly smaller in circumfrrence. slightly. I tried contact glue but the question is:
can I just throw it and use universal sealant paste?
I've used gasket sealant on flush surfaces but not with a recess so I assume it will still work.
Would you coat the flush surfaces and recess or just a bead in the recess?

[ABA]

carnt you make your own gasket out of thick card and then use gasket sealant

[Ride Ibiza]

Was told by another mechanic not use gasket paper on this one. How ever I just beaded the recess nice enough and left it for an hour to go tacky hard. Then mounted lightly and left for an hour and then tightended. Seems to be working

[Ride Ibiza]

The problem to deal with now is the thermostat housing seal. i opened it to find that the thermostat seems to have dropped and was maybe not working but allowing coolnt to pass above through the gap. Wanted to see if I can use sealant here as well

[Chug]

yeah the seal fits around the thermostat and holds it in place so sealant isn't any good, you need to get the proper one.

[Ride Ibiza]

It seems that the last person to fit it didn't install it properly but with luck the seal wasn't deformed to much. I took a stanley blade and managed to reopen the squashed recess and fit it around. Took it for a good run and now no leaks. will of course order a new one.

Thanks all for input have a good weekend