[rbarton]

Time for an update.

The hose I got made up locally to bypass the front oil cooler had the wrong fittings - M30 x 2.0. I think the correct size is M30 x 1.5? I took Len up on his generous offer of the loan of his test loop. He shipped it to me super-fast.

While I was waiting, I went ahead and did some more checks to try to figure out why the car gets as warm as it does just idling in the garage. I removed the engine-mounted thermostat and tested it in a pot of water. It seemed to start to open a little late (around 195 or so) so I ordered a new one.

I also pulled loose the oil lines that I had disconnected for the engine removal. I had kept these plugged up when the engine was out but wanted to make extra-sure that I didn't have a dead mouse or other blockage somewhere. Everything looked clear. I also removed the oil line which runs from the external thermostat housing to the oil tank. It had a slow weep at the thermostat housing, so I had ordered a new one along with the thermostat mentioned above. Note that this line came off much easier than I expected - I had soaked the fittings with PB Blaster for a few days. I was able to slightly tighten and then loosen the oil tank end with my line wrenches. I went ahead and cut the nut on the thermo housing end with a Dremel and then whacked it loose with a chisel placed in the cut groove.

While the lines were off the oil tank, I used a cheap borescope to look into the tank and through every oil line that I had loose. All looked clean and clear.

The new thermostat element (engine-mounted one, remember) and oil line arrived yesterday, so I installed them and refilled the tank with 20W50 VR1. Ran the car and checked things out with my IR gun.

After about 25 minutes, I was seeing about 210 at the oil tank and the external thermostat housing. The bottom of the crankcase was showing around 235, and this closely matched what my dash gauge indicated. At this point, the test loop Len had provided DID suddenly get hot. So I have return flow through the external thermostat, but at a little higher temperature than I would have expected.

The test loop is going back to Len and I'm going to hook up my front oil cooler one last time and check it again. Since I was stopping my test previously at about the same temperature that I did see flow up front last night, I want to double-check that I do not see the same through the cooler before spending the money for a new one.

As far as the car getting as hot as it does while idling, I think I'm at the point where I'm going to have to take it to my mechanic. When I get it back together with front cooler installed I will take it for a drive and see how it behaves driving vs. just sitting and idling. I am wondering if the car is very lean at idle..Is this something I can check without an AFR gauge? Does it make sense that it would run this hot due to a lean condition?

Thanks again.