That's true about the temp thing Joel..but if your cooling system ie rad,fan is up to the task it should be able to dissipate the heat to make it run at the temp of the thermostat..I got a 180 and that's what the temp is at the t stat housing..+ - 5 degrees..but I don't live in an extreme hot climate..so I am sure that has a massive factor in it..there is only so much heat the air can absorb..I doubt there are many heat pumps for ac down there also!

Rich

 I know that when I had the 195 in the old engine the gauge in the car showed bout 200. I put in a 165 and the gauge BARELY moved off the low end. Rebuilt engine, put in a new radiator, used 165, still held a LOW reading on the gauge. I have read and heard the becouse of the O.E.M. plane of the intake, duel plane, gas tends to stay liquid when cooler and does not burn well, resulting in evaperation rather than molecularization. Did you see that word RICH? Whew, hope i copied it right. Which leads to higher fuel consumption and less economy, mileage and power. HELP me out if I have been led astray. I'm willing to learn new tricks, I'm using this thing, and do what is right. Do not race cars run HOT for a reason? Was not the H.E.I. system created to make a HOTTER spark to aid in economy and mileage? I am going to try a 195 for a while to see what effect it has and compare.

Mark you crack me up..you hit on a few fun points.. but I will make them all moot..since we drive cars with no computers to adjust for the million things that can be adjusted for there is no majic bullet..pop a Haltec on this thing and watch the hp fly off the charts consistently ..that's the word of the day..consistent ..one thing these cars will never be..NA carb cars are what they are..a constant test and tune..you can find a happy medium with them..but rarely are they at an optimum performance ..the thermostat is just a part of a puzzle that is always changing..oh and race cars are just that..run the 500 miles or so and then in the trash they go..did you notice that they lowered the pressure they could run at Daytona? So they would overheat in the draft to slow them down..it worked.

Rich

I don't think there's any ONE reason why GM went to HEI...or any manufacturer went to electronic ignitions.  I think the basic reasons were due to emissions requirements...a points and condenser system was simply unable to maintain emissions standards for the required mileage.  I believe the government standard was for the emissions system to last 50k miles, so a points system couldn't even last that long much less maintain its state of tune.  HEI could help ensure there was sufficient voltage to fire even very worn spark plugs where points, whether adjusted properly or not couldn't.  Timing remained unchanged with HEI where it couldn't with points that wear down.