Okie - after a holiday and several (unrelated) trips to A&E for my son, I finally got some time. In case you missed last week's exciting episode, here's where we left our hero:
The new viscous fan clutch is installed. Rad is flushed & topped up with tap water. Thermostat is removed.
Upon replacement if the fan clutch, initial impressions were that it was fixed. After ~10 minutes at idle the temp gauge was only 1/3 from cold. But after a short test drive (up a half-mile hill and then back down) the temp gauge went up - needle still in the white and really not that far past straight up and down (about the thickness of the needle away from the black gap between white and red).
Question: even without a thermostat, would having only water in the rad explain the elevated temp? I'm trying to use water to do my testing to avoid wasting anti-freeze. (At the very least, I've still got to put a thermostat back in).
Also, Steve, how do I check if the fuel mixture has leaned off? Could I engage the choke to richen the mixture and see if that helps?