first off, my car is an '82 GSL. like 2 days ago my car seemed to be getting awfully hot, so today i went and got another t-stat because i narrowed down the possible cause to that. the pic below is of what i found when i pulled the t-stat. that little piece of metal was jammed in there, keeping it from closing all the way. it looks (and feels) like a piece of solder, which would make sense b/c i had my rad sealed up about a month ago. could this have damaged my water pump, or maybe there are some other little pieces kickin around waiting to cause trouble? the car is running fine temp wise now, but if it happens again i'll know exactly what it is.

my symptoms (just in case this is happening to you)
--car took at least 2x as long to warm up, because new, cold coolant was entering the engine before it had a chance to warm up at all. also, the temp needle was up around the halfway mark, and would drop below the normal 1/4 range when idling or coasting down a hill.

hope this maybe helps someone, and sorry bout the pic quality, had to do it w/ my cell phone.

Jason