This article provides a great walk through on how to step-by-step change your Honda Element Thermostat. Please do yourself the favor and replace this with an OEM genuine Honda thermostat, it’s not too expensive on Amazon! I have a link below to the OEM product. Get it done right the first time! Please follow this guide and if you have any questions please be sure to join the facebook group to ask!

Step-By-Step Directions

Remove Plastic Splash Guard

Two 10mm bolts and a bunch of black plastic fasteners hold this splash shield up into place. You need to remove this first to gain access to the rest of the job. Special fastener tool and replacement fasteners will be linked below.
Drain Coolant

Open drain valve on bottom of radiator and drain the coolant into an approved container and dispose of properly
Remove wire loom clip

On the thermostat housing is one of those annoying clips that hold the wire loom out of the way. You need to now remove that to gain access to the top bolt for the thermostat assembly.
Start with the Top Bolt

Make sure you can get the hardest bolt out first. Start at the top of the housing and remove the 10mm bolt at the top first.
Break the bottom bolts loose

After you get the top bolt out, just take your wrench and make sure you can free up the bottom two bolts, but leave them in for now, you will get more leverage for the next step
Remove the metal clip

Leaving those two bottom bolts in will allow you to get some leverage when removing the metal clip that holds the lower radiator hose on, use angled pliers to slide the clip up the hose and twist the hose to get it off the housing
Remove the lower two bolts

Once the lower radiator hose is off the thermostat housing finish taking the lower two 10mm bolts out and put those aside
Swap over secondary plastic thermostat piece

There is another elbow piece that you need to take off the old thermostat housing and install onto the new thermostat housing.
Install new thermostat

Install the new thermostat housing and reverse the directions to install the new thermostat. The torque specs of the three bolts are 8.66 ft lb Use Honda Type 2 Coolant to refill radiator, linked below