I have a 454 K2500 Suburban at the office, glad it has a 42 gallon tank. I have an F250 at the house, paid less for it at auction than one of your tires and wheels. The 5.8 always seems to have an idle problem, but Ford had a spacer for the throttle body with separate adjustable allen screws to even out the flow, so that helped. The guys with the hot mustangs figured that out and is an actual dealer part.

 

Why does this read like a wikipedia cut and paste article...

 

A. How's your hand?

B. I see more hydraulic gauges twitching than engine oil. You?

C. I'm not sure about 10X wear at 160 F temp, guess there are a number of factors. But with 62 miles per month use as a ranch truck, lasting 62,000 miles on a rebuild, that is 83 years.... so testing at a lower temp might be safe. Or I suppose one could drive it like you stole it, wheel up to the garage/shop building (can't imagine this was done on a tarp spread on the dirt under a tree), throw up the hood, and take the big shop fan and try to cool the engine down. Might lead you to rule out or in heating up the fuel lines with all the extra mods and changes.

 

A. Hand is doing very well.
B. I deal with twitching Hyd gauges all the time. Esp. since 3/4 of the vehicles in my fleet I maintain have hydraulics. Most of the time, the twitching stops once the hyd fluid has warmed up a little.
C. I have no idea where those numbers come from. Have never heard anything like that in my life. And considering I ran a Renault for just over a year with no T-stat, then installed a 160* T-stat and it ran another 3 years before it was rolled...by the way, the Renault had over 400k miles on it when it died. Then engine was actually transplanted into a friends Renault.

 

Not trying to say the OP doesn't know jack, but the more he throws non-relevant info into the discussion, makes me lean more and more towards thinking he is plagiarizing...but he could be correct. My $.0000000009 worth.

 

Chris,
and others with OBII 96 and newer Disco, you realize when you check for a fuel pressure regulator replacement on the computer as well dealerships they will come up with a hard lined threaded to the inlet of the regulator.
On 95 and older this regulator inlet has a short steel nipple with hose bulb on the end with a short rubber hose app 3" long attaches to it and the steel line heading over the right rocker cover.
Seems the threaded version is what everyone stocks give it 95% of the time. Just a heads up as they insist they are correct.

 

Shavannah, you didn't catch on with my 454 engine unless you knew me.
This a 100% FE series engine build, 427 block with 428 crank, 427 LR heads combination.
The only GM at this household is the Rover engine as well the Rover door latches that both have proven failed items.

 

Have you checked your vacuum?
Could your modifications be causing the vacuum to 'twitch', causing it to affect the regulator? Just a thought. Not sure how it would affect a hot start, only drivability. But you never know...

 

Chris,
here's a chart with wear vs temperture as example,
Rover's use 188* stat if that is used vs a 160 stat wear factor becomes an issue.
Yes you can run an engine 30K miles without a stat, depending on the cooling passage design the engine could also run hotter.
Warmups are many times longer that a stat engine hence the 10 times wear factor.
This chart is on running temps not cold starts included with lower temp wear, this alone a higher wear factor added.
HOTRODSRJ’s COOLING TIPS Operating temperature vs power and longevity!

With plenum vacuum it's actually slightly higher (stronger vacuum) than stock, remember I went from a stock 285* Rover cam to a 260* cam having less overlap. Lobe centers a couple degrees wider another plus for torque and smooth plenum vacuum. I also increased plenum chamber volume with the 0.250" spacer added increasing accumulator effect a bit more. Splitting hairs yes but all factors added into the total design package. Besides it ran great until this recent stumbing problem, if it started off right away after mods then yesa blame the added extensions.
I must add there is no connection with the plenum chamber vacuum to regulator to cause a pulsing vacuum signal to the regulator as the plenum chamber is a large accumulator in itself smoothing out intake valve suction pulsing.
It would have to be a cam in the 320* range before this signal became choppy effecting vacuum to the regulator, think of Pro Stock at idle. Rather fat cam ya think plus no way to get fuel mileage as well passed EPA standards with smog. Low end off idle torque, no as idle alone is ragged at 1,720 rpm's.

 

Looked at the link, but as far as I can tell, there is no mention to the actual tests. No info on what engines were used, if the same engine was used with different t-stats, or if a brand new engine was used for each different test. Makes a huge difference on the results. Not trying to debunk it, but I like info, and if someone is going to throw that kind of stats on a website, they should at least post where and how they got their data.