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John, that's some really useful information. If I did not have a hose come off I would be having no concerns. The hose problem was stupidity on my part. It was the hose right off the manifold expansion tank where I had maybe a 1.5" long piece of 3/4" smooth pipe, then had it double-clamped. I should have known better. I don't even think I had the clamps very tight. I replaced it with about a 3" nipple, threads on the end then cut concentric grooves into the pipe for the hose to bite into. If I could find the right size hose barbed fitting I'd go with that.
No air in my system, the sight tube on the expansion tank is full. I don't hear the water pump passing air with engine off. I think I will go with the Mr. Gasket thermo per your recommendation just for margin. My temp sender is a stock Chevy sender in the left front head. I recalibrated my VDO oil temp gauge to work with it. I calibrated the gauge by placing the sender in contact with an adjustable tip soldering iron, and placed a calibrated digital temp sensor onto the sender to monitor its temp. I placed tick marks on the VDO at 10 deg increments from 150 up to 230.
I did the fast idle test in the hot sun to try to stress it. If a hose blows off I want it happening at home and not a few miles from the house. I'm going to take her out on some errands today so wish me luck.
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