Alright, I'll leave it alone.
The thing is my old thermostat ran at around 84 or so and the upper hose was always hard and the system was pressurized.
Maybe it is running cooler because I did repeated flush's after using Prestone Flush? The PO apparently hadn't touched the coolant in years as it was rust water that came out initially. Probably why the water pump started weeping. Man, whoever replaced that pump before used gobs of black silicone and a "made in Japan" water pump with odd looking fins - they weren't the cast ones that the German manufacturers use. The only reason I replaced the thermostat was I was in there already doing the water pump etc. and decided to do it as a PM.
So, the upper and lower hoses being soft to the touch, and the lower one feeling considerably cooler than the upper one is nothing to worry about? Just being over anal about my old benz's I guess
Man, my kids think I'm nuts messing with these old things all the time when I have "nice cars" sitting on the sidelines
