when cleaning out the cooling system this morning, i took off the hose and fitting that contains the thermostat, and let an open tap water hose in the top of the radiator, and with the engine running, and water pressure, let it do its thing. the thing is with the thermostat out, the water pump really slings the water everywhere.... beautiful. i put the thermostat back in and filled up with water, let heat up for thermostat to open, and, well, lets just say that after the thermostat opened, its not letting very much water through. im thinking i should see a LOT of circulation with the radiator cap removed.
is this trickle normal?

try this, take out t-stat re-connect the housing & hose, disconnect the lower hose(from radiator)- tie it away from the fan belt- add fresh water to the radiator opening & run until your tired. Or you could "T" the heater core connections & get similar results. This should control your water pump fountain effect. V

well, took out the thermostat, and hooked the hose back up with fresh water... what flow! it took about 8 fresh water flushings with running the motor for about a half hour in between each to get all the crap out. each time i'd refill the water would muddy up in ten minutes. put the thermostat back in, and in minutes the temp guage is nearly pegged, and the flow is next to nothing. something i dont understand is the direction of the thermostat. it as an arrow that says which way it goes to the radiator, but looking at it this way, common sense tells me that the water flow would push the thermostat closed, even if the temperature did open it.

If you keep encountering crud like this, you may want to remove some of the freeze plugs on the driver's side of the block, and use whatever you have (straightened coathanger wire, long screwdriver, whatever) to scrape around in there, especially downward, to loosen up the accumulated scunge.

Also, make sure you're installing the thermostat right way round, and that you're using a 180° unit.

i made sure it was the right way. theres an arrow that points and says "to rad". thats the way it was installed to begin with. like i said before in this direction, supposedly the right direction, even if it is thermostatically opened, it looks to me like the flow of water would push it back closed. any harm in running with no thermostat at all? i did it this way to get full flow to flush the system.

Try to take out the drain plug on the engine, as that should be the lowest point in the engine(that water goes...) maybe you get some more crud out of there?

a wild guess tells me that where the aftermarket water temp guage was fitted, is where the original block drain plug was. and yes i took it out.
plugged the radiator drain back up, along with the block plug, and ran the fresh water hose backwards into the water outlet hose of the engine. i'll get the crud out.
my main point is that this thermostat thingee seems to be restricting waterflow a LOT. the engine temperature guages dont cry for mercy when it is removed, and the flow of water is really good when looking down thru the radiator fill cap.

So, get a new one...
I like thermostats for heavy duty stuff like cat´s and such.
They are too expencive to repair because of a little part didn´t work, so the little parts are often better...

Not that I have had much problems with any other, cheap "little parts" either, but I feel a bit better

In 35 years of owning these engines The thing I have found out is people clog up the blocks with bars leak, aluma seal etc. These lousy excuses for proper radiator repairs clog up the last two cooling passages on slant sixes making them run hot back there .You can often see the connection when a hot connecting rod comes through the block by the starter. Punch out the freeze plugs ,open the drain at the rear of the oil filter,remove the thermostat and put a high pressure garden hose into these openings and get all this crud out of the cooling jackets. A piece of welding rod or a coat hanger through these openings can be useful. It is easier on the 5 freeze plug later blocks .Learn how to solder the radiator or have a shop do it. Albert Kragen got rich ,he told me many years ago, from his chemical wall from guys who want a substitute for fixing a mechanical problem.
Kev

The thermostat is there to restrict flow...if coolent goes to fast through the radiator, then it dosn't have time to cool. I use a 195* thermostat, a little 2 core 19" radiator (supposed to be a 22", but it was what I could find new and the same day....long story) in my HEAVY Satellite with no cooling issues. With a clean cooling system, you'll be fine.