Thanks for the suggestions. The radiator is clean and free flowing, I flushed the engine with cleaner twice .... the flushing water is clear and clean not a hint of rust or debris. Did a little more testing and removed the thermostat completely and replaced it with a straight hose and the engine doesn't overheat, it stays around 180 degrees, it doesn't loose any coolant, there are no hot spots when testing with one of those infrared digital heat testers, and I can clearly see coolant circulating in the radiator. Without the thermostat in place I drove it for a number of miles on the freeway and lost no coolant and the engine didn't overheat ..... so maybe I do have a bad thermostat .... but that is crazy in that it is the second new one I've had installed with the same overheating result .... could both of them be bad? I'm going to do some testing on the thermostat later ..... but for right now it isn't overheating and my son's prom is this weekend (he really wants to take the little 180D) so I'm not going to mess with it anymore and just let him go with it. My fingers will be crossed that all will go well ..... but I'll be prepared to have to rescue him if need be! He and his date are excited about the adventure of it all ......