Ongoing cooling saga on my 4.2 GU

Okay....finally got the last piece of the jigsaw today, for what I hope will be the end of my cooling issues.

1)....I replaced the thermostat (thanks for the gasket Ken; a beer was opened for you here tonight, but when you didn't turn up, I had to drink it myself). Before installing the new one, I did a test. Using the large glass bowl from a turbo oven (the lid with heater unit has long ago gone to the tip), I placed just enough cold water in it so that the 2 thermostats would sit on the bottom in their upright position. I placed a gas ring underneath, taking care to ensure the whole lot was centered so they would heat up equally. They are both marked 76.5 deg and both cracked at the same time. I was almost going to end the test at that point, but decided to let the heat continue to build up and lo & behold, the new one opened up about twice as far as the old one!!!

2)... Bottom hose was removed and placed to one side. I introduced the new hose to the Patrol. This new hose has been cobbled together as follows: At the top where it joins the motor, I used a piece of top radiator hose. I cut it about 4" from the end that attaches to the thermstat end. Both standard hoses have 38mm on the motor end and only 32mm on the radiator end. With the 4" I cut off, I was able to get a section which fits nicely onto the motor. Yesterday I got a piece of 32mm stainless steel pipe bent to 90 degrees; about 1 foot long overall. I joined it to the 4" bit of hose with 2x clamps. The stainless pipe points downwards (just like the OE Nissan hose does) and onto this I have attached a 23" long Vulco-Flex hose I got from Repco. (thanks very much to Hugh from WA for all your help to get me this far.....much appreciated). This hose is bendable, it has reinforcing wire moulded into the rubber as well as a s/steel coil spring wire on the inside. This had to go down between the air-con compressor and the chassis and then bent forwards to connect onto the radiator. That connection sits underneath the a/c pulley.

3)... I refilled the radiator, (after flushing it out as much as possible including the heater), with rain water, about 2 litres of techtalloy 90+ and a bottle of Water Wetter...(see.: www.redlineoils.com.au).

After all that I had to have a couple of brown lemonades, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow or the weekend to see if the temp gauge gets back into it's hole.

If it doesn't solve the problem, I might have to save the pennies and do the "MTQ hussle".....hahaha

Cheers

Roachie