I calibrated the probe with -well no ides for the vocabulary here- but 100% equipment. Probe is correct!

Block is not filled

I had the valve cover off once in between, looked fine.

Lifters are factory roller lifters from the late 80s 318 blocks, so it cannot really burn the cam. Are the pushrods ends critical?

It actually takes quite some time to get up to 160 / 170. I heat the coolant to 170 before starting the engine, so oil is warmed up (gets to around 120). And I can run it all day at 2000 rpm and some load on it.

At 2500 and low load no problem either. As soon as I start opening the throttle and get more than 100lbs I can watch the gauge coming up. Takes some minutes, but will climb to 260, then I pull it back down.

Guess I need to get the oil out and see what is going on :-(((

I must admit before I had the probe working (had trouble with the I/O card, did not want the Ni/Cr-Ni-probes) I had it running at 3000rpm and some load (150lbs) for quite some time and everything seemed fine- Coolant temp dead on, oil pressure was OK, but did not have an oil temp gauge! hope not too much is dying in there...