[quote="Aaron Ford"](quoted from post at 11:11:06 12/18/11)
....."The coolant in the radiator never really came up to temp. The coolant temp would rise until the thermostat opened 190-192, then fall quickly until 175-180 degrees, then begin climbing again. It followed this cycle all night."....
The above part of your post caught my attention. I believe you meant to reference the temperature of the coolant in the engine, since the thermostat can not control the temperature of the coolant in the radiator. However, the main focus of this reply concerns the cycling between 190-192 to 175-180.
The last thermostat I installed in a 1992 300 cu in Ford 6 did not want to open and I finally shut off the engine. I could hear coolant boiling in the block however the thermostat would not let any water thru to the radiator. After the boiling stopped, I restarted the engine, coolant flowed to radiator and I added the remaining gallon + of coolant. After thinking about what happened I concluded the thermostat sealed well enough to create an air lock at the top of the engine preventing hot coolant from reaching the thermostat.
Now to this fall. I installed a new thermostat in my 1977 wood hauler also a 300 cu in Ford 6 (yeah I like em) however, first, I drilled a 3/32 diameter hole in the mounting flange of the thermostat. The objective was to allow air and coolant to flow past the thermostat allowing it to better sense the coolant temperature. The thermostat works great and there was no air lock - I was able to add all the coolant with out restarting the engine and waiting to top off.
Now to my point, I also believe the bypass hole allows for better temperature regulation since the thermostat cannot accurately sense the coolant temperature when there is no flow. Without flow it may wait (depending how it is located within the engine) until all/most of the coolant in the block is hot after which it opens and remains open. Then it receives a slug of cold coolant from the radiator and quickly closes, waiting to repeat the cycle.
As another poster suggested blocking cold air to the radiator should also be effective.
I would be interested in any comments/observations from others who may also drill the bypass hole when installing thermostats.
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