No, that's just the Rover engineer that designed the original cooling system.

 

I was looking at the 180 thermostat and wondering if it would affect emissions of the vehicle. I live in CA and have been having a hard time getting it smogged

 

I kinda doubt it will affect the annual smog test as that test was not as detailed as the one the manufacturers had to pass. I'm sure you know all the normal tricks like high alcohol fuel, etc. If it did you could run a 190 element for the annual test and then change it to 180 the rest of the year.

 

Is there any in stock? I've looked on the website and I get this message "The selected product combination is currently unavailable." I'm looking for a 180F thermostat.

 

Sorry about that, web site still has a bug in it I have not found on the inventory system, still working on it but I updated it manually.

 

Thank you! I just ordered mine!

 

@Extinct which part number is the thermostat, I want to do some testing with 170and higher quality thermostat

 

You can order extra thermostats at inlinethermostats.com, basically any small block chevy thermostat will work but you will need to drill a 1/8" bleed hole in it so that it will open without spiking the temperature. The ones I have sourced have a punched precision hole and are not a standard pn due to that hole.

 

Tim:
Today it was 92 degrees out, so I went for a test drive to capture some readings.

My truck has only about 5 miles on a new radiator and water pump. All hoses were also replaced.

I used both my inline Auto Meter Sport-Comp 2 gauge, that measures right before the radiator, and a Bluetooth OBD2 gauge that is reading from the engine temperature sensor.
On average, the Auto Meter showed 10 degrees higher than the engine sensor.

On the highway at 65 MPH, the engine showed 197 F while the Auto Meter showed 210 F.
Around town I was seeing 188 F (OBD2) / 198 F (Auto meter)

My around town/idle temps are much lower with the inline thermostat.
I don't understand why the highway temps are so high, as they were always lower with the LR thermostat. Should I run a cooler thermostat or are these temperatures within acceptable range?


Images from the highway drive:

 

@TimInNova With a black TD5 thermostat I get up to 188 -192 at hiway speeds. Partly clogged cats can cause in increase in temps at higher RPMS, a exhaust back pressure test can check for cat performance.

Running lean can also cause temp rises, Are you sure you have all the air purged and no other issues.