[Mr Handy]

"Also, I do not have a vacuum port on my carb so the vacuum advance on the distributor is just plugged off. The timing is set to 5 degrees I believe. (I will check again, was not sure where to set it to.)

This is why you are getting hot at idle. No vacuum advance and only 5* timing.
I would set your timing to 10/12* and see how it does. I run full vacuum advance which bumps my initial timing of 10* significantly higher at idle.
what carb do you have that has no vacuum advance port?

don't worry about your t-stat, they set the low operating temp not the high. I like a 180 stat but a properly tuned engine can benefit from 195, this is why modern cars run hotter than our trucks with carbed engines. On the other hand I don't believe in the coolant running through the rad too fast theory either. We are working with heat transfer. Heat travels to cold, it does not care how fast the coolant is moving in a closed system. if the rad cant give off the heat as fast as the engine is making it, you will overheat. If the coolant running to fast through the rad made a difference your rad would be cool when your engine was overheating.