Reply to "Increasingly high oil temps"

When running a compression test higher is better. Low compression indicates a leak, either past the rings or valves. I would be more concerned about the reading of 162 then 204. You want them all with a few precentage. I thing 10% is the common rule but double check and I could be off.

You can try to squirt some oil into the low compression cylinder to see if it comes up. That would indicated ring blow-by and could raise oil temp in a round about way. Renting a leak down tester would be the final answer.

To be honest, if it runs fine (smooth across all cylinders) then it might not be a compression problem. A secondary test is to pull one plug wire at a time to see if the idle changes. Pull one plug at a time to see if the idle changes, replace and move to the next, heed all warning about being shocked. If you have a dead cylinder then one plug when pulled will have no effect on the idle this would indicate a dead cylinder.

Other then that I am stumped. Try a aftermarket oil temp gauge just to confirm your readings. For $50 it might confirm that it is a bad gauge or sender, noting all of the other problems with the Italian gauges and US senders.