Gauge Readings
Pressure- to me if your running in the 40's hot at idle in gear(load) your doing good.
Water Temp- If I recall that is a dummy guage but as long as your not over stock or on the other half of the guage sweep your fine, the guage should not be flucuating. Also depending on the owner, it could be all stock, or they threw in a lower temp thermo, and had the fans come on at start.
Vaccume- I am not sure, again depends if the engine has been modded
A/F- Ideal N/A Command should be 12.8 at WOT, depending on tuner, the good ones can have it running leaner on part throttle from idle to 2.5k and have it drop down when you go WOT.
As for the Thermo, I have done it all. To me if the tune is correct and the engine is healthy, your fine with a stock one. Due to the aluminum intake heat soaking, people put the cooler one in but I have seen nearly no diff as for as any hp or track #. If your not getting Knock Retard then its not making that much of a difference. Also I have found is a car that is over cooled, or stays in open loop longer tends to lower your MPG. Also emissions CAN be effected if you need to go on a sniffer.
My grandpas corvette with 70000 miles is at 30 and my 130000 mile camaro sits at around 20 both running 5w30.
My old firebird was at around 15 with 10w40 and was still kicking when I sold it.
I thought the LS1 cars came with a dummy water temperature gauge and our cars came with real ones?
Oil pressure should be ~20psi at hot idle (spec is anything over 7psi I think) and ~10psi for every 1000 rpm is good.
A 160* stat is worth it, but reprogramming your fan settings is much more beneficial.
My grandpas corvette with 70000 miles is at 30 and my 130000 mile camaro sits at around 20 both running 5w30.
My old firebird was at around 15 with 10w40 and was still kicking when I sold it.
I thought the LS1 cars came with a dummy water temperature gauge and our cars came with real ones?
Vacuum-no idea
A/F- ideally like someone else said 12.8-13.0 at WOT. At part throttle it should be 16+ when you are cruising. Anything lower than that is simply wasting gas. When there is no load on the motor there is no need to be at 12.8-1. All this stuff only applies to N/A applications.
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