Anyone?

You want the oil temp above 212 so the water burns off. KEPP sells one that is between 215 and 220.

you mean this one?

http://www.keitheickert.com/detail~ID~1035.aspx

For twice the price? Yeah right.

So, back to my original question, is a 180° stat okay, or should I spring the extra $25 for a 200°F stat?

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/mocal.htm

Personally i'm leaning toward the 180° stat. I'm sure the oil will see a higher temp somewhere in the engine that would allow it to burn off water. But that's not my primary concern, as I had zero water contamination after 25 hours without the oil seeing more than 160°F, usually below 140°F.

Your oils temp should be a min of 180. Water will "burn off" at this temp but it will just take a little longer. My small block has a 140 thermostat in it, I do not know what my big block thermostat is.
Ken

After I pound a pair of 502's for an hour and take a read of my oil filter with my heat seeking ray gun it shows as much as 230*F and that's with a 200*F stat.

A good hard run makes this debate loose wind?

A constant oil temp assumes that you have an oil cooler with enough capacity to keep the oil temp at or below the thermostat rating at all loads for an extended peroid.

With gas being 3.50 a gallon last summer i didn't run that hard very often. I have a 16" oil cooler, and most of the time the gauge didn't budge off 140. I do a lot of boating in the early and late season with water temps as low as 40°F.

I missed some posts ,what does PAO stand for ??Catch me up to date.

Polyalphaolefin, it is a true synthetic base stocj.
Ken

FYI...the latest reformulation of M-1 Extended products has Group IV back in them. It may be a III/IV blend.

15W-50 M-1 is back on my "A" list.

See ya