under 200 is very good .if its at higher rpms, it will not keep the water in the rad.as long . so its not in the rad. long enough to cool it. if it runs hotter at rpm its either air flow or water flow. you ran the fans and it helped some so, the air is good when its on. sounds like more pump pulley to slow the water pump down
Sorry, this urban legend has been around for a very long time, but that is just not how thermodynamics works. There is a given amount of heat that must be rejected by the radiator regardless of the speed at which it's moving. Slowing down the coolant would increase the temperature drop from radiator inlet to outlet, but less volume would go through the radiator being cooled more, so the same heat output would occur.
The only reason to slow down a water pump is if it's turning so fast that it's cavitating and not pumping efficiently.
In fact, slowing down the flow through the engine excessively can cause hot spots in the heads due to localized boiling...
Anyhow, thanks for the reminder to check the t-stat opening, NitrousN. I think it's right though, because when warming up from dead cold, I can see the gauge climb to 185 and then suddenly drop several degrees as the cold coolant in the radiator starts flowing.
