72 350 and TH350 troubleshooting?

[kna4977]

New to me 72 350 temperature gauge goes higher than my comfort level. Pretty much sits on the very last line of normal or on H. Check temps at thermostat housing and various other places and it’s in the 190s to low 200s running. Turn off and it goes up to around 210-220 range. Any ideas it’s anxiety inducing to have a gauge that seems to keep going up. Should I swap the thermostat for a 160 or 180 or ?

Transmission seems to take too long like a couple of seconds to go into reverse. Anything I can do outside of an overhaul to help this? Seems to shift fine otherwise and goes into forward gears normally.