Update:

Maybe I shoudl have left the thermostat alone. I have a feeling it was stuck open on purpose so the car would run extremely cool. Since replacing the tstat the car overheated pretty bad and now isn't holding coolant. Took it to a shop and they said the coolant is heavily contaminated with hydrocarbons meaning the cooling system is leaking into one of the combustion chambers, meaning blown head gasket or cracked head I suppose. I'm guess the previous owner knew about this which is why the tstat was stuck open. Damnit!!! SO it's time to pull the head and figure out what the probem really is. I sure hope it's jsut the gasket!!

So by the way, anyone know of a good electric fan swap and/or radiator upgrade? I never want to have an overheating problem again once this is fixed. Being in TX it doesn't take much to overheat. Thanks,
Michael