Brian, next chance you get, look at the cutaway views and associated description of coolant flow in the FSM for the 617 engine. It is complicated - I design flow testing machinery for a living and it took me a little while to understand it. HOWEVER, AS THE PICTURES AND DESCRIPTION SHOW, REMOVING THE THERMOSTAT WILL REDUCE MAXIMUM COOLANT FLOW THROUGH THE RADIATOR. It even goes on to say that removing the thermostat to increase coolant flow is false reasoning, due to the removal of the bypass restriction.
It's been a few years and thousands of posts, I suppose we had to disagree at some point.
