some say its bad to remove them, but in my temps down in florida, its always open anyway. was thinking of removing it for that reason, and the water temp sensor probe is gonna hit the t/stat once i drill the water neck out anyway.
radiator is on the rack, along with a fan, so no chance of overheating.

 

The problem with removing the thermostat is if the water is flowing too fast it will not stay in the radiator long enough to be cooled down causing your engine to run hotter. You may be okay removing it but I would not recommend it.

 

actually, can treat it as a car and remove the spring assembly and have the plate stil in there as a restriction.

 

Why go through all that stuff and just drill one 3/8 in hole in the plate the reduce the restriction caused by the plate when the T-stat is closed it will take longet the warm up but in FL that's not an issue. That trick is used in race cars all the time if they end up running hot. YOu can also change your coolant to something like evans or add some Waterwetter to help eliminate hotspots and improve the cooling systems effiiciency. I'd also wrap you exhaust system to keep the heat away form the engine.