[JL8Jeff]

My 70 SS396 has a 160 t-stat in it and it will run at 160 in the winter which leaves me with very little heat in the car. In the summer it will run at 180-200 depending on if I get stuck in traffic. But that's a mechanical clutch fan and you should have electric fans that can turn on sooner. Try the 160 and see how it runs. You need a restriction to slow the coolant flow, but you may still have another issue like too much timing or clogged passages. And don't even try to compare to a 93-97 LT1, they are reverse flow cooling so it's a totally different scenario.