I drove the car around the neighborhood for about 10 minutes or so. The temperature gauge acted normally, no erratic behavior or other gremlins to speak to. In my previous post I mentioned that the water level in the expansion tank dropped about ~1.5 inches and I took that to mean the thermostat had opened and pulled water in. After driving the car around I popped the hood and checked the hoses. The upper hose from the radiator to the cylinder head was very warm, even hot to the touch. Whereas the bottom hose from the thermostat to the lower radiator opening was slightly warm. Finally the hose leading to the injection pump wax thermostat housing was also warm.
Why wouldn't the lower radiator hose be hot like the upper? What way does coolant flow in the engine? Does coolant flow from the engine to the top of the radiator (hot), is cooled by the radiator, and exits from the lower radiator opening and through the thermostat? My goal here is to make sure the thermostat is opening, it must be as I didn't see any signs of overheating.
As a side note both my Nissen radiators I bought from eBay arrived yesterday, they're very nice quality and the price cannot be beat!
