Thanks Skip, That just confirmed my belief that the impeller with 35,000 miles is intact. Now if it were in my boat engine which is in salt water that would be another story. Here is a kicker. I went outside a little while ago and ran the engine and she was back to my normal temp range of hanging between 2cnd & 3rd marks. WTF? No stat, ran w/ heat, ac, idle rpm, 4000 rpm, ect, ect. Since I have the radiator coming tommorow I think I'll flush the block and wait till tommorow.

nh3

 

New radiator,put the stat back in and I now the the whole truth about the snap ring. It's a f**ker. Removed lots of air and now I'm back to my normal half way point on the guage at idle. Drops even lower at higher revs. I think I will try to engineer some type of insert to hold the stat in place. A stainless collor w/ set screws? Does that snap ring have to be so thick? I'ts only holding back 15psi or so of water. A thinner snap ring mite be a bit easier to work with.

nh3