Quote Originally Posted by Darth_Penguin View Post
A thermostat is used to help warm the engine up to operating temperature faster to reduce wear, NOT to aide in cooling. Engine tolerances are built around a constant temperature and the thermostat help to achieve that. Thermostats actually detract from an cooling systems ability to cool.
Ever take the thermostat out of your engine? We used to take them out back in my race car days thinking it would lower temps, However it actually raised temps. They make restrictor plates to replace the thermostat with so you can "tune" the amount of water flowing through the engine because just removing the thermostat in many cases would cause the engines to overheat.