B16 fiat x19 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps back. Coolant issue

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OEM head gasket ordered and ARP studs ordered. Head gasket replacement soon! hope this is it. I am running out of things it can be. Also going to wire the cooling fans to the ECU. the fiat uses a thermo switch in the radiator. Figured if honda wants the ECU to control it, why not. Looks like 2 wires to the plug. guessing those connect to a Relay to give the fan power. Correct? now I just need to see if I still have the other end on the honda I pulled the engine from. to make pluggable, rather than hard wired. Run those wires 6-7 feet to the front, hook up a relay and BAM I should have the fans working. I am also wiring in a bypass to I can manually turn it on just in case.

Odie
 
I thought I had success. so I had a friend recommend while I am waiting for time to do the head gasket, I should start it and spin it around the block every day to see if it might be just air not getting totally shaken free. Every time right after I start it, I purge the air form the radiator and well as form the bleeder on the cold side of the thermostat. The radiator bleed stopped having air after the second run. the other bleeder keeps having air. Yesterday after bleeding, it settled at 197-203 bouncing up and down. Radiator was HOT. Drove it down the street and back and it never went over 203. drove it around the block a few times and same. When I stopped in the drive it started to climb to 205 and I took it back out and it went back down. So back to the drive to get the fans wired up.
To wire the fans, I connected the relay (pins 85 and 86) to the "fan" from the ecu (havent traced the pins, rywire labled it fan) then poser on the other side of the relay to the fans. initial testing of sending power through 85-86 gave me fans. now back to the car.
Started it up. waited for it to warm up. got to about 176 and it coughed and I lost connection to my tunerviewII. I stopped the engine and restarted. same. I unplugged the fan from the ecu harness and it reconnected. Looks like I might just go with a manual switch, no biggy. this time it went up to 205 and then stayed between 200 and 205. odd part is the radiator is cold until I see the temp hits ~203.
Once agian bled it and there was a little air again.
What temp should I be getting? most of what I read says 190 to 196 ish. but I am running hotter than that. also I have tunerview set up to flash the screen at 208, is that too high? at what temp should I be shutting it down?
This air is really pointing towards the head gasket theory. But I have a couple weeks before I can get to that. I will be out of town next week, so no starting it up and seeing if there is air. NOTE: I am using the no spill filler using the filler neck I purchased that comes off the head where the coolant line goes to the radiator. when I fill it, rev it up, to about 3.5k, there are no bubbles.

anyway, thanks guys, we are getting close!!

Odie
 
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