I need help!!!

[tkeduk8r]

Well this is kinda a rant and a prollem... ive been having prollems with my truck overheating, or at least ithink its overheating... ill start out by saying its a 74 i know not a 67-72, but this gets more attention over here than in the 73-87 side of the board.. ANYWAY with that said its a 74 c10 250-6 all stock with no air poiwer steering or brakes... i decided to get the thing ready for an ice cold MN winter by flushing the system and replacing all hoses, thermostat, and belt... NOW the fun part... with the new parts a leak developed in the seam of the drivers side tank on the radiator, plus the flow was not that great... well i took it in to get fixed and it was 70 bux to fix or 105 for a new one.. well i went with the new one and went home to install it... put it in... at this time i also decided to install a set of gauges instead of the idiot lights since i had the garage warm... with that done i started it up to check everthing out... well the temp gauge pegs at 250 (and i put a new acdelco temp sensor in too) and everthing ran ok i think witht eh idiot lights in.... soooo... i decided to pull the new 195 deg thermostat and return it to get another 195 one.. installed it and same thing and now the waterpump is leakin... SO off to get a new waterpump... this time before intalling the thermostat i boiled them on the stove to notice that the original 192 deg thermostat i pulled open alot further than the new 195.... so i put the old thermostat back in and ran it... well it never really got warm and the gauge read less than 175 and i had little or no heat int he cab... sooooooooo of to the parts store again and i got a delco 195 thermostat again, went home and boiled it to check it first.. it opened a little further than the partsmaster 195.. so i installed it.... now the gauge pegged at 250+ again... and i wasnt getting much flow throught the radiator again... UNREAL... so i called an old radiator guy here in town and he said to check the gauge by placing a candy thermometer int eh radiator to chack the temp of the flow.. and i only got 110 max temp doing that...SO i changed the gauge in the cab, and decided to put the old thermostat back in to check the flow temp with that....WELL gauge went in ok but wen i torqued the thermostat housing the threads stripped out of the aluminum housing....SO int he end time to put it away till tomorrow and go get a helicoil kit to put in..... AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... anybody have any thing like this unique overheating prollem happen to them???? and can i put a helicoil in a straight through hole???? ive only ever put them in small engine blocks with drilled holes that are not all the way through.... I had to put it awy tonight though, cuz it is becoming a avalance of bad sh**.... any help please...
--mike