Long story short, just finished my car it's an 84 cutlass, 455 big block, a/c delete, hooker super comp headers, torker intake, etc. The issue is when I took it out to the gas station (5-6 miles away) it was running around 185 when I stopped at the gas station (it has a 160 thermostat in it) on the way back the temp kept climbing till it hit 230 and I shut it down. The radiator is a 2 row aluminum with dual electric fans with a shroud (yes the shroud is spaced out from the radiator), the fans were on all the time (manual switch controlled-no thermostat). So I let it cool down when I got it home, checked all the fluids, started it and let it run for about 5 min, shut it off and pulled the thermostat housing and thermostat and put a thermometer directly in the coolant and it read 168 degrees. So I'm thinking something is wrong with the thermostat, removed thermostat and ran it, car maintained anywhere from 195-210 unless your sitting still and then it makes it to 220 so I just kept driving. Got home and checked it with a temp gun at the water pump engine was 210, radiator was at 170 no matter where I took the temp at, checked the temp pretty much all over the engine and got around the same temp of 205-210. Theoretically it is my belief that the engine and radiator should be the same temp not different indicating something is definitely wrong.