You don't have any hose out of the coolant container twisted? Sometimes hard to eyeball.

 

*DONE*!!!! Thank you to ALL for your help as always. After I let the truck cool from this morning and tested out the old t-stat to find it working fine, I swapped the old one in and refilled and bleed again. Went out for a 1/2 hour drive (around town speeds, no highway really as I didn't want to go too far from home). Temps were fine. Maybe a bit warm compared to some of yours, but they were between 205 and 221 the entire time. The bottom hose felt warm at the end as well. This is much cooler than my test run the other day, and cooler than when I started the entire project pre-fan (usually in the 230 range).
I brought the new t-stat in and did the same exact tea kettle test, and sure enough, the POS did not open up at all. So, at least my gut was good on this one and that damn bottom hose. Saved me from wasting anymore money and time on stuff I didn't need.
Once again, thank you all. It is much appreciated.
Boiling water sitting in there with no flow thru... the company is going to get a bit more than a piece of my mind!

 

Great - now a thought, if you have the IR thermometer, and temp is 221, should coolant bottle be pretty hot? It gets flow back from throttle body heater 100% of the time... guess they might send you a new "good" stat, while you don't wanna, and who would blame you, but....

 

Yes, the coolant bottle is hot. During the process I checked all the lines everywhere. I don't have an IR thermometer, but should really look at one.
As far as the part, I sure as heck do not want a new one. I will take my money back, and they can send me a shipment label if they want the POS back!
The old one was perfectly fine (and tested now), so no need to touch it. The water pump was fine too, but that was just a precaution. The bearings and all feel solid and fine, and you saw how clean it was inside.

 

For others' reference: from where, and when did you get the replacement thermostat?

 

Good point. I got it from autopartswarehouse.com a few weeks ago. I didn't want to bash them until I see how they respond first. It is the same exact one that was in the truck. I'm away from home tonight for biz, but I believe the brand is Calorstat.

 

I asked that because I had heard several people getting t-stats from AB that failed to open (several to many moths ago). When I replaced all my hoses and stat (from AB) I secifically asked about the defective stats and they said they had all been recalled. I performed this sometime during the summer.

*my sense of time is highly skewed: few months might be a year or more, etc. That is why I write down a date under-hood for oil changes and fluid exchanges

 

your close on the time frame it was early last spring I had just replaced everything with new stuff from AB when I heard about it.I too double check the tstat and keep the old one just to be sure.

 

When replacing that stuff. I always buy factory thermostat and cap from the dealer or online factory LR in the box. In my thinking those are two really important parts that do not cost much more and you do not want a China nock off. I have got hoses from Autozone and Advanced with no worries. most of there hosed are Duracraft or Goodyear. They are good quality. If you get the guy to let you walk in the back where they all hang. You can about remake your octopus setup if you choose the right bends. Its about $45 and you don't have to wait on shipping.

 

So, autoparts warehouse answered my e-mail right away and took care of it. They said they would get a new one out to me right away. I told them I didn't need one anymore, and would just prefer a refund. They did so, and sent the return label for the old part, so all good.
And the actual Thermostat is from a French company, that appeared to also supply the OEM parts to most of the British OEM companies. It was the same one that was in the truck too. I am very much so not a fan of cheap Chinese parts! But, to me, it was just crap luck that I got a bad part from a good company. Maybe they are the same supplies to the bad batch that was mentioned? Maybe so.