Thermostat in backwards?

I made a homemade re-route that uses a thermostat directly in the head so all flow is dead headed until the thermostat opens. Temps stay low and then peak to 205 quickly when the thermostat opens and then drops back to 185 for about 2 min before settling in at 195. Doubt the dead head design is what's hurting you, it's not ideal but it's how every old school small block chevy in the world was setup and they never had any problems either.

I really don't think deadheading the thermostat outlet is a healthy solution.

When you are deadheading the column of coolant within the head, you are relying on thermal conductivity of the liquid.
This scenario assumes to air pockets or large bubbles in the coolant, as well.
Any air pocket would act as an insulating barrier between the t-stat and the coolant itself, delaying and/or disallowing the opening of the thing.
And, that potential delay may cause many a regretful consequence.

This is exactly why a lot of t-stats have small seep holes on them, and the correct procedure is to install the said t-stat with the said hole at the 12 o'clock position.
You know, purge the potential air bubbles, and bring the hot coolant to the t-stat,so it will open.

I am using a homemade reroute system in my car, and the heater outlet is BEFORE the t-stat.
This has 2 benefits - I get heat out of my defroster much sooner (very helpful on cold mornings), and the heater outlet purges the coolant of any potential air bubbles and ensures the heated coolant actually comes in contact with the bi-metal part of the said t-stat.

Just my $0.02...

I understand your concerns, I'm using an oem thermostat so it has the small seep hole. My plan was to try it this way and if I had problems do something about it. Thing is it works fine and I just don't see the need to put any effort into it.

I wouldn't consider that to be a fancy tool, more so the right tool for the job, yes there is other ways to do it but a variety of tools and methods exist for a reason. Sometimes having the right tool for the job makes the job infinitely easier.

I have both a coolant pressure tester / filler, and the magic funnel. I use the magic funnel 99% of the time when I burp the system. It works well and is easy.

I tested the 195* thermostat that came with the M-tuned kit as well as a Stant that I bought at Pepboys. Both had the same results:

Before boiling water:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...747af33419.jpg

After taking out of boiling water. You can see the middle protrudes out a little.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ad57fb7181.jpg

Seems like both barely opened?

I also took out the jiggle piece on the 185* and made the hole slightly bigger - no more cycling to 245 on startup.

I kindly refer you to post #23 on this thread.

I just cannot just sit and read another cooling system tread where this comes up again and we get the same answers about bleeding the cooling system because the re-route design is fucked up, it is hard to believe that out of all the coolant re-route systems out there no one makes one with a front of the engine bleeder port that burps the system to the hose between the thermostat and radiator every time the engine is cold and thermostat is closed.
Think about it the cooling system will boil at certain times under normal conditions after shutdown on the turbo housing specially if you use straight water and water wetter for track use, so pulling out the jacks and big funnel before each session is the answer ?
I have made two RR systems for myself and added bleeder systems for friends that had the dreaded trapped air and subsequent overheating and magically the problems went away.
It would be nice if one of our great vendors made such a thing and we stop hearing this old broken record

Boiling water does not make an air bubble. It makes a steam bubble, which, upon cooling, will condense back to water. At that time, the system should be replenished from the overflow tank.

High spots can trap air. That can be a problem.

Steam is not the issue, but rather a symptom.

Thermostats work best when closest to the heat source. They like a constant flow of the warmest coolant across their sensing side. Mounting one in a way that limits flow across the sensing side when closed will reduce reactivity. This should be no surprise.