Did a little intake work Tonite...

Do you mean that the tubes from the rear of the manifold to the front would lower the temperature at the back of the heads?
Because if you have a 16 pound pressure cap on your radiator, your going to have 16 lb throughout the system I would think.
Having a "water pressure" gauge is the trendy thing (I guess) around my area with the oval track guys. My kids B mod has one... The PO made it sound like it was a necessity to race... I guess I'm too dumb to know stuff like that.