[AnthonyG]

Hey I understand ya gotta work with what ya got. All our Flatty's are old blocks, yea most have been checked for cracks but ya never really know about the cooling internals. Some work great some not so much. Typically we don't find out til it's running in our cars. If ya get it working in the right range and gotta go without stat's to get there you go with it. If ya need an auxiliary electric, go with it. I pretty much run my Flatty only in warmer weather Spring, Summer, early Fall. I currently am running stat's & one side is giving me a PIA not opening half the time and I have to shut down and wack the housing with a big wooden screw driver handle to get it to open then fine till next shut down. Have had issues in the past with stat's sticking. IMO, and from my experience while they work when opening and closing properly great, but my experience is they frequently don't. I've run without & in the warmer weather mine comes up to temp just fine and stays in a nice operating zone ( 175 while at speeds & 200 in slow to stopped traffic. I will probably remove mine before my season begins (again) as I'm sick of seemingly always having some kind of an issue with stat's. A lot is written about Flatty's being cooling challenged.