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I am merely an amateur as well, but I'll provide my thoughts and you can take them for what they're worth.
I don't believe changing out the oil thermostat would have much effect on your final temperature. A 185F thermostat should mean that it opens at 185F so the oil will enter the cooler at an earlier temperature meaning that it should take longer to heat up, but eventually the temperature will stabilize dependent on the efficiency and cooling capacity of your oil cooler, not the temperature at which it opens. I don't see much value in changing the thermostat. The 135's run normally around 240F, so my goal has always been to have my car run between 230 and 250 on track. I figure that is a good range for hard driving since 240F is what it normally runs at.
I honestly don't know any difference about the inlet/outlet being mounted on top or bottom. Mine are mounted on top but simply because that was the best mounting solution for my upgraded cooler. I guess I could see some issues if you are having to push the oil up into the cooler versus flowing the oil down and filling up the cooler. It makes more common sense to flow from the top, but I have no engineering data to back that up.
The comment about not running in series is interesting. I guess it depends on the efficiency of the cooler. I read the Pegasus article and can't say I really agree with their reasoning. They say a second cooler is less efficient in series because the oil being sent from the first cooler is already cooled and therefore the second cooler will not cool it as much. I think that while this is "generally" true, you have to take into consideration your own setup. If I run on track and have a stock oil cooler, it could run up to 260F? Maybe higher? Yikes. If I run 2 oil coolers in parallel, each oil cooler may reduce the oil temp to 250F. So that's an improvement, but what if I want further reduction in temp? Well, if you run two coolers in parallel, you've doubled your capacity to cool twice as much oil at once, but they are cooling at the same rate. You could change each cooler to a bigger size, but it seems to me that if you run them in series you can get a further reduction in temperature. The first cooler will cool the oil to 250F, like it has been doing, but then that oil will be further reduced by the second cooler, so hopefully you end up with a temperature of maybe 240F (obviously these numbers are a little hypothetical). It makes sense to me to run them in series and that also makes plumbing the lines much easier than running two sets in parallel.
Isolating the cooler from vibration is worthwhile to limit any cavitation of the oil. It is probably not totally necessary, but if you are taking the time to do the oil cooler upgrade, its not much more effort to put in some rubber grommets or mounts.
I ordered an Earls's oil cooler from Summit Racing, EAR-22500AERL, along with a mounting kit, Mounting Kits 1302ERL, that has material along the bottom of the mount to reduce vibration. Along with the an-fittings and line I probably spent a total of $400ish. I am considering duplicating the setup and running a second behind the driver's side bumper inlet.
Hope that helps, and again, I am no expert either but just giving you my thoughts. If someone else has different theories, please share.
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