One hole in thermostat is good. 2 holes threw a code in my 2003D2. I forget the exact one, but its the fault triggered by too large a delta in the coolant temps between sensors.

P1174 or something like that.

The other solution is to just buy the thermostat with the jiggle pin. Solves all your problems.

Re: bleeding - take off coolant bottle cap, fill hoses from either side of T-stat housing, then coolant bottle. Drive it. Refill coolant bottle as needed from "burps".

That's always worked for me.

Temps go between 177.8 and 190.4 for the first bit, then hover around 183.2 once i settle in on the highway and all systems are warmed up.

Mine is also suffering from a pinhole in the coolant bottle, so the system isn't holding pressure right now, but I'll fix that once it gets a little warmer.

We've had this weird thing called "rain" in scottsdale, and I'd not really sure what to do. Its where water falls out of the sky.