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  1. Hi all,
    Well last week my buddy and I were going to make a flight over to a nearby airport, land and return. All was good until about 40 minutes into the flight. I noticed the coolant temp was a little warm, 200ish. I have a valve inline to radiator that can be adjusted for more or less cooling. The guy I bought plane from cautioned me about opening too much because temp never gets into the normal range. Anyway it was in the same position of last flight, difference was that flight didn't involve such a long sustained climb. Early morning takeoff and outside air was about 75 when things got interesting. Temp started climbing slowly past 210 so we set it down on dirt road on a ranch. Opened valve a bit (can't reach it in flight) but decided to pull top cowl just to make sure. I was tugging and poking around and found I could cause a copper elbow on the "manifold" to leak a bit. I gave it a pretty good tug and it came out! Looked like solder let go. So what was supposed to be a nice quick back in hangar by noon turned into an adventure involving trailer and not back to hangar until 1am.
    My question is there a better setup for the EA81 coolant lines and fittings that someone has built? I'm thinking rebuild "manifold" with welded aluminum hard fittings and blue silicone hoses. The current system has an inline stat so not sure why the inline valve to control temp was needed? I'm also considering upgrading radiator to a new aluminum one but that will make for better cooling which seems to be the issue and need for the valve, too much cooling now? Also considering the "Thermal Bob" inline some are running.
    Thanks for the input if you have any. I'm just glad we had a road to set down on before it got too hot. I'll attach some pics later.
    Thanks