OK.... got the vacuum all sealed up - runs awesome - just need to dial in timing and 'voila' done. Except, 1 creeping little problem. I had a new temp sensor, and it showed the temp just increasing with no slowing down. Decided it was a bad sensor, so put the old 'tried and trued' back in - yep.... it's shooting up to 240 degrees. Lower hose not really heating up and top hose still cool. Seems I got no flow. Thinking the new thermostat is bad (shoulda boiled it first to check).

Thinking about just pulling the t-stat and letting it free-flow. Curious to hear opinions about this. Realize warm up will be slower.....

David