I kept the thermostat out and moved the temp sending unit to the manifold position and the temp did drop about 10 degrees. Now when the temp got to 230, I shut the car off and it rose to only 240 degrees :-).

I watched the water in the radiator. it circulates nicely, so the water pump seems to be doing it's job.

I'm going to look at the timing now. Since the balancer is borrowed and I can't be assured that is hasn't slipped, then I can't really be 100 % sure that using a timing light will be affective.

So I was thinking of using the "just below pinging" theory, which is if the timing is set just below the point where the engine pings under load, then the timing should not affect the temperature of the engine.

Is that theory correct?