Might as well fix that roundtuit also.

Coming along I see, nice!

you could do what I did, dip in in purple power grease remover, then scrub it real good, also went ahead and port matched each runner, as the casting job was poor, I made sure not to totally smooth them out though, just made them all 1.9" x .9" and knocked off the rough casting inside the runners.
NOTE: I did not match them to the gasket, because I did not want to remove the heads, and do the same.
I have pics somewhere around here..

looks alot better than mine did. mine had a few spots were stuff was leaking and getting everywhere

All is now good under the hood!
Was still working into evening after a couple hours of beer/snooze break..

Overall went well & mating surfaces were prepped/cleaned...Polishing..ha ha..


Is it ok to curse while trying to line up the elbow?

I did manage to align with no leaks!

All Done! You could say I finally fixed the roundtuit Mike!

New PCV, Iridium Plugs, TB Ports Cleaned etc, Car has never run better!
Just took on hwy for 1 hour, windows down heat on, temp sits perfect at 195F.
No coolant loss may have to just add a bit of coolant after cool down cycle to reservoir marks now though...

Better late then never when it comes to that roundtuit.

Onto bleeding system again.
Let car sit for 12 hours to cool. Pull rad cap, & needs more coolant, add some, squeeze upper rad hose nothing but air. Not taking it from reservoir yet.
With cap on, while warming up squeeze upper & lower rad hose open bleeder screw, I hear & see some air bubbles and slight coolant come out...good.
Wait until it'* hot & thermostat open and open bleed screw again..hey more air coming out until it is just a solid stream of coolant.
I think I may have to repeat all of this for a few days...

Did you drill the small hole in the thermostat at the 12 o'clock position?
Or did you get that OE thermostat that has the hole with a small ball/check valve?
I drilled a hole in mine, and it was easy to bleed, I cracked the screw twice and bled it, but after that there was never anymore air in the system.

i havent had issues with bleeding, just run it for a min or two cap off while with the rad higher than the engine, slight slope. then button it up and drive it the temp will spike up a bit but after the thermostat opens and it drops down you are fine and done

Drilling the hole is not totally necessary, but it does make it easier to ensure no pockets of air are trapped in the system, I got the idea from a post by an old PBC Gearhead named Bill Buttermore, from a thread titled "Coolant Fill Procedure for L36 (others similar)"
I'd post a link, but it is from the PBC website, you can google it to find it easily..

i have seen it a bunch of places, but have not really seen the need. have done way more thermostats than i can remember without doing anything to them and never had an issue. as long as you run it like i said