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Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions, I took the time to flush the rad this afternoon holding off on the block and heater.
After a short 4 letter word struggle with factory hose clamps, I found a 1.5 to 2 inch piece of ribbed wire loom in my catch basin with the anti-freeze.
Given the washed gray colour of it I am pretty sure it came out the lower rad hose area.
Nothing else of note came out other than a few bit small bits and some "sand", all of that material might have covered a nickel.
Produced to flush forward 3 times followed by reverse 3 times.
Closed it all up, installed my new gray soft close thermostat. Re-filled, bled and let her idle. The expansion tank dropped about a 1/2 inch, in 15 minutes of idling temp never broke 199.
Went for a 30 minute drive this, is the good news temps ran between 188.6 and 194 max even with some short idling 2 -3 minutes. That is a drop of between 10 and 14 degrees F. Tried a steep hill in the neighborhood temp stayed solid at 190.
As a bonus the annoying tick that showed up intermittently at idle seems to have left. Leading me to believe the dealership, I bought from put too light an oil in, I need to check with him.
I suspect that chunk of wiring loom was a a large part of the problem, I still have to replace my fan as 1 blade is broken.
I too went with the soft thermostat, and the Hayden and Dorman. Plus I bought an OEMTOOLS Cooling System Pneumatic Refiller Kit #24444 to totally bleed the air from my coolant system and refill.
I've had engine coolant temps as high as 228 degrees but now they are down to 186 - 192 degrees and no more waterfall noise.
