Well, I should slap myself! I've found part of the problem: I took off the case sides and low and behold, the temps dropped rapidly!
Sides on:
Ambient: 29.6C
Water: 39.0C
Idle: 48.0C
Sides off:
Ambient 29.0C
Water: 32.7C
Idle: 42.0C
This still doesn't explain where before, the old system with panels on, Ambient hovering around 30-31C, idle ~40-42C
Is the PSU heat causing the rise in temps???! I've got my hand right in front of the vents and the air is warm but not blazing hot... There has to be a way to solve this without adding more fans... since the older system, should (theoretically) have been less efficeint in terms of flow (2-90¡Æbends) and flow direction(Pump--->CPU--->Rad--->T-Res-->Pump)
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XP 1600+ AGOIA-Y (GreenLabel, UNLOCKED!@/ NF7-S 2.0/ PC 2700 DDR
10.5*172FSB(1806/ 1991 high), Vcore 1.792...@84.95Watts
--86' Chevette Heater Core
--1/2" Vinyl tubes
--Via1300-Stealth Mod(QUIET!) 
---Home made copper-tube block
---PVC small internal res
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