I did get the thermostat swapped Tuesaday. Now the engine heats up. The needle on the gauge seems to be just a bit shy of horizontal. The 850 is a bit above horizontal. I re-used the original torx bolts, as I did on the 850. I was very careful with that rear bolt as my torx socket was at an angle due to it hitting the head. I don't recall having that issue with the 850. When cleaning out the holes with Brakleen, I noticed the holes go all the way through. I think the holes on the 850 were blind. I put anti-seize on them and torqued them to 13.x NM.
The old thermostat isn't completely shut when cold, but still not open very far. I would have thought that it would heat up better. The opening is a larger diameter than the new Motorad I put in. The Motorad doesn't have the jiggle valve, but I didn't seem to have an issue with trapped air.
Unlike the 850 the S70 top end, under the plastic ignition/plug cover, was (is) filthy. I didn't have time to remove the coils so I just blew it out with air..... pieces of corrugated plastic wire loom, mouse turds, and whatever. The timing belt looked decent so I'll leave it be for a while. The engine has two issues that will require some research on my part before dong the belt.... it should be a mechanical tensionor, and it's got variable valve timing on the exhaust. which I didn't have to deal with on the 850.
I drove it to work Tuesday for the first time....decided to punch the throttle at one point. I started to make the jump to light speed, but traction control kicked in






