Bill, keep the updates coming as you make them.
I've never played with a thermostat before, would it be possible to get the thermostat (housing and all) artificially up to opening temp with a boiling bag of water or heat gun or something of that manner?
I may just have to use the "this is my first time" method modified with the pre-start Rojo-rub and take it for a short ride to get to temp and let it suck in fluid from the reservoir.
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_do_...st-time_method
Rojo-rub, can we make that a thing?