how hot is too hot

I moved the flap from the down position (perpendicular to the ground) to up (parrellel to the ground); just tried it once; it seemed that the oil temp was slower to get to the half way point than before. at least it lagged the water temp more than usual. that might help somewhat.

 

I want to report that I think I've got my cooling problem licked. I've been driving the car around a couple time in mid-90's heat. I don't go crazy on the rpm's (under 5k); my oil temp gets to the far side of the mid point dot, but the water temp is 5-10 degrees less than the 90 degree mid point dot. I think that's pretty good.
I lose no water after shut-down. (I'm using 2 bottles of water wetter with about one and a quarter gallons of antifreeze and the rest distilled water.
The left fan seems to stay on when it's supposed to. That is probably due to birdman's fuse box.

In short, I think the problem is resolved.

now I'll jump back to my other two problems, headlights are still intermittant, despite the new fuses and box, and a/c still warms up to 8 degrees or so less than ambient once the water and oil temps are at normal operating temperatures.
thanks all for the advice.

 

I'm no mechanic, but it appeared I had a couple of problems

1. For awhile I was running with too little coolant. the problem was masked by air bubles in the cooling system which made the overflow tank appear to be filled to the proper level, which it was, but there was air in the system. loosing all the coolant and refilling and bleeding solved that problem (why I lost all the coolant is another story which deals with my by-passing the heat control valve to troubleshoot my a/c problem.

2. I was also losing coolant through an old hose. I replaced that and stopped the loss.

3. The biggest problem I had was that the left radiator fan apparently wasn't working any or some of the time. I think I solved that problem by installing birdman's fuse box which has modern fuses and better connections on the right side box (though it didn't solve my intermittent light problem which I was hopeful it would, so I'm still working on that)

4. The oil cooler switch had been in the verticle position when I bought the car, experimented with it in the horizontal position which I believe is the winter setting. moving it back to the verticle I think got me a few degrees on the oil temp.

5. I think the two bottles of water wetter probably lowered the water temp a not insignificant amount.

6. I'm using less than 50% antifreeze, because it's so hot in houston. maybe 30-40 percent. The rest is distilled water.

7. alittle common sense. I'm not shifting much above 5-6 k rpms. that also helps, and certainly not in stop and go traffic.

It seems to me the only thing I didn't do was fool around with the thermostat which appears to be all right so far.

now if I can just figure out why my a/c goes from 20 below ambient to 8 below ambient once the water and oil get to temp; I'd be a happy camper. I'm leaning that a ferrari is more than a car, it's a on going process. hope this helps.