i had this same Q with my stillen kits thermostat.
Not sure about Z1's plate, but for stillen the bypass hole is tiny like 5~6mm (1/4 inch), i think 80% of oil would still circulate regardless of it being shut or open.
for your information, mycar rarely reaches over 80degC (176degF) for street driving and cruise around, which is rather low and my older 350Z had the exact same results without having any thermostat plates so this makes me wonder if stillen plate is providing much help in heating up the oil at all. To test if it was working properly, I dipped my plate into boiling water to watch its behaviour and it was doing what it was supposed to do so nothing is 'broken', just not effective enough i guess.
One good thing I would expect is that it should help the car cool down faster than mre 'effective' thermostats since it will allow it to go lower as it will circulate 'not that hot' oil through to the cooler core, but do we need this thermostat at all then!? haha
Cooling is pretty awesome though, the car reaches 130degC (265degF) quite easily but stays there for long time and cools right back to around 100degC (212degF) during a cool down lap.
For comparison, systems designed by manufacturer (like bmw's M cars etc), they heat up oil to around 90deg rather quickly and stays there. Not sure what is to be called more 'effective' but I was expecting similar results with stillen kit because staying under 80degC (176degF) almost all the time doesn't make me too comfortable..
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