if the thermostat is completely removed, there is a problem with the system, the water flow is too fast to pick up enough heat from the engine and too fast to achieve the design cooling from the rad - things might work fine under some ambient temps and loading, but the Generals engineers had good reason to design the system as they did .... by removing just the thermostatic portion of the stat, the 'doughnut' left in place keeps a restriction to control the rate of flow to the original design, you just lose the precise control of temp range set by the stat rating .... and these engines do work best and last longest run at the design temps
Bill
