Ditch the Thermostat?

I had a friend that put a Caddy 472 in his CJ7. For some reason, he did not run a thermostat... BUT, he made a plate with a bunch of holes in it to restrict the flow a bit. If he ran without the plate, it ran way hotter and would overheat. I would agree with above posts, have your rad flushed or rodded out. A good rad shop that actually works on rads instead of just ordering a new one, will take the tanks off and actually push rods through the tubes to make sure they are not restricted.