[TomG]

My Ford 1710 has a 185-degree thermostat, and I imagine most liquid cooled engines do. One advantage of a liquid cooled engine is that their service lives tend to be longer. They can be engineered from an assumption of fairly constant operating temperatures (at least according to a dealer who sold my a Honda generator). There wouldn't be a very constant operating temperature without a thermostat.

My '89 F150 ran cold the first winter I had it. The thermostat was stuck partially open. It also gained temperature going up grades during the summer.