[John2kx]

Guy,

Your engine temperatures look normal. 200-205 at idle with your ambient temp. is GOOD. Your building allot of heat at 2200 rpm with the car motionless. This should reduce a bit above 45 mph where the fans really don't help at all but the continuous movement of air through radiator really remove heat from system.

Not sure how much time you spent burping air from your system prior to blowing that hose but it takes a few days of driving/purging air any time you introduce air into system.

I use the Mr. Gasket thermostat only because a normal t/s did not cool my car. There are many variables that come into play here. The type of engine has allot to do with it. A higher output engine makes more heat. It looks like your t/s is doing the job.

Where you have your water sendor located will make a difference in what you see on your temp. gage. 180-220 is pretty normal for a chevy v8. Just watch your gage after you've spent time purging air and see what is normal for your system. If your temp. is high (+225) or bounces up and down from 180 and then back to 225 or higher, you've got air in system at a minimum. There are many other things that can cause high temperature but I'd concentrate on the simple things first.

With my estimated 400hp engine, I see 170-180 gage temperatures on the highway at 70 mph with a/c on with 90F ambient. 160F on my early morning drives to work and 190-210F while stuck in traffic.

You'll also note that when changing from highway driving (constant rpm, making lots of heat) and then dropping into town with several red lights, your cooling system is really being put to test.

Before you write this off and think everything is normal, what kind of gage are you using to measure water temp.? I would not rely on one of those $20 POS available at your FLAPS. If not a good VDO recently calibrated by someone like North Hollywood, I'd spring for a middle priced Auto Meter and install sender at intake manifold.

BTW, congrats on getting your car on the road!!!

John