Hi,

Welcome to the Brickboard as we need new blood on the 200 series. If you end up with a few clots causing any problems, tell us about them.
If we all can think on them together, it helps to keep our brains working smoother!

@ 188K on the body and a new 20K heart you are off to some good rolling!

It sure had a lot of Air Mass Meters. That will break anybody’s bank!
I’ll bet it was that stove pipe off the exhaust manifold!
Unscrupulous shops got their boat payments from that car!

We usually leave the aluminized/paper pipe on there to fool inspectors.
The wax thermostat gets tossed and I put a small 5/8” square block of anything in there to force the flap over shut.
I have read that a small rubber hand ball works in the tube of the housing too!
It goes into the pipe behind the flap in case the flap is missing a gasket or gone all together!
That whole affair snaps out!

Again welcome!

Phil