Hey there. While I'm no cooling expert-here's my two-cents-worth.
First, make sure your belt is tight. Easy. Although it may soon be shot down, what I do is drill a very small hole in the body of the thermostat and orient the hole towards the top. I found this helpful in letting all the air out of the system as it's being filled with coolant. It's always worked for me-kind of a poor man's wiggle valve you see in expensive thermostats.
Make sure you've got your heater control fully over to the warm side-it opens the valve to the heater core and allows the coolant to circulate.
As far as the temperature going up with the engine off, that's normal on all engines. With the fan not turning, water pump not pumping, and no air rushing past the radiator, the engine will "heat soak". It will probably raise in temperature by 10-20 degrees before it starts cooling down. An electric fan with a thermostatic control helps with this. They won't shut off until the preset control reaches the highest setting.
180 doesn't sound too hot to me-really depends on climate. If you're in a hot climate it's probably normal to see that kind of temperature.
Hope this long-winded post helps!
-Donnie