high oil temp???

["Ed Shiers" <mamn97@pop.dial.pipex.com>]

Hi,
I've just bought a 16v VW jetta gti so plans of making my old 80 
sport better are on hold and the car is currently laid up in the 
garage. I've a problem with the Jetta and since it is related, 
particularly to the 20v model, and since this list is by far the most 
helpful on the net I wonder if anyone can help/ has experience with 
this problem.
The problem is that the oil temperature is reading high - I've seen 
it climb to 118 when driven gently and have been told that 100 is 
high. (althought the manual quotes 140 odd as being high). My 
mechanic said it could be that the cams were moved out of sink a 
touch while replacing the timing chain but a symptom would be loss 
of power, which it may have, and I can't see any 
reference to this ever being done in its' FSH. 
The last owner also fairly recently replaced the oil cooler, 
radiator and fan beause of a oil cooler failure (which clogged upp 
the radiator) - I'm now wondering if these were a symptom of the high 
oil temp and not the fault of the oil cooler. So does anyone have a 
suggestion/ experience to a common problem/fault causing the high oil 
temp? - and where do I start?

Also is oil temp this high likely to damge the engine?- Should I keep 
driving it with the temp this high - I think the oil is synthetic.

I can't see any water in the oil, the water temp needle stays between 
1/4 and 1/2 and the car runs beautifully and smooth ( apart from when 
I switch off and hear the exhaust ticking cooling down)

BTW its a 1990 KW 1.8 ltr. engine with 130k on the clock.

Hope someone can help!

Cheers

Ed Shiers