I should also add that I am not loosing any coolant or blowing any white smoke through the exhaust. I have ordered a new thermostat but I am wondering if I may have not got all the dirt out of the radiator core.it was pretty nasty. It carries about 40 psi of oil pressure at wide open throttle and runs good at all throttle positions.I know these motors are prone to overheating and cracking heads and I would like to avoid that if possible. It's too good of a machine to send to the scrap yard. Again thanks for any input.
Testing or replacing the thermostat is a good place to start, along with more cleaning of the radiator.
Do you see any bubbles in the fill neck when running?
There are no bubbles and at operating temperature I can see the water flowing in the neck so I am almost hesitant to think it's the water pump
May be time to think about roding out the radiator.You could try one of the radiator flushing chemicals,Cat even has one.I have never had much luck with the chemicals,but taking the radiator apart has made a real difference in cooling.
Go ahead and use a chemical cleaner and see what results you have. I would do this before installing the new thermostat if at all possible. If nothing else, the chemical will hopefully soften the scale in the radiator flues so that it is easier to clean it out if/when you get to that point.
The temp coming right down as soon as you stop working it sounds like a stopped up radiator more than a thermostat to me.
Keep on cleaning, but also make sure that the fan belt is properly tensioned and the fan blade is installed correctly. Most blades are cupped and the concave side should face the direction the air is moving. Occasionally find one that someone had installed backwards with the "hump" of the blades toward the discharge of air and they don't blow as much air that way.
What is happening with the torque converter temp gauge? The fact that the temp drops as soon as you go to neutral tells me that the converter may be running a bit on the hot side.[
The torque converter heat and pressure are all good.I ran it this morning fr about 40 minutes and it had climbed up to 190 .I will try a cleaner and flush on the radiator inside and try pressure washing the core outside. I have noticed something a little suspicious with the plastic vanes on the radiator core between the fan and radiator. They are kind of deformed and flattened out could this deflect enough air flow to cause it to run a little warmer than normal? And would it hurt to remove some or all of the vanes so that it would have all of the air flow the fan produces. Or are the vanes there to direct air flow?
Also another thing to consider is that the outside temperature here has been averaging over 90 when I have been operating the machine so it may have something to do with a little excess heat.what temperature do the d330 engine's normally run when under load? I have never noticed mine getting much over 180 but that was during winter and early spring and summer when the outside temperature was under 70.thanks for the info.