Update on this initial issue:
I pulled the water pump and it looked fine. No leaking and the blades looked good. No obviouse wear. It wasn't noisy before, so I bet the bearings are ok. I reinstalled it. While I had it out, I sprayed high-ish pressure water into the hoses that go to the heating coils. It pushed plenty of coolant out, but no gunk. I put everything back together, filled and bled (and bled warm multiple times). Then I did my stress test by running the engine at 3,000 RPM in park for a few minutes. Same thing happened, gauge climbed and climbed, fans kicked on around the 210 mark, but the needle kept rising with no sign of slowing down. The purpose of the test is to simulate long slow hill climbing, which there is a lot of here in Utah. I'd say the cooling system is still failing the test. Should I just not expect to be able to hit mountain roads in this car?
The last thing I can think of that could be causing the cooling issue would be grime/blockage from the LIM gaskets. Does that sound about right? I figure I will do the LIM gaskets soon, at the same time I do the rocker arms, lifters and valve cover gaskets. When I do it, is there any reason I shouldn't try cleaning out all the coolant ports with high-pressure water and compressed air (after blocking off the intakes of course)?
