Chrysler Repair: water leak near thermostat housind: 2.7L engine?, chrysler dealer, plumbing supply

Question
I have a 2000 concord and it got hot on me yesterday, so I decided to change the thermostat, (boy what a Job) anyway, there is a small hole (about 1/4 in.) very near the thermostat houseing and after I got the thermostat in there was water coming out of that hole. Do you know what that hole is for? and is there a reason for water to come out of it.  This car has 171000 miles on it.

Thanks
Ray

Answer
Hi Ray,
You didn't mention which engine you have, but I looked thru my manuals and find only that on the 2.7L engine it appears that there are 3 bolts for thermostat housing, but one extra bolt hole in the cylinder head next to the bottom-most bolt, just to the left of it. Is that the hole you are describing? If so, the manual doesn't say anything about that hole so I would have thought it would have been a blind-end opening that was plugged. You can probably find out by checking at the parts counter of a Chrysler dealer where they show all the cooling system parts in Group 7 of their computerized parts data base. There are drawings of all relevant parts so they should show what goes into that hole, if anything. That would be the most accurate way to determine what the hole is for. You may just have to plug it with an expansion type pipe end plug from a plumbing supply store. I have used these quite successfully in cooling system applications in the past.
Roland