Your friends are nuts! If it WERE better the factory would save their money! You are operating your coolant pump at it's maximum. Allowing the coolant to WHOOSH thru your system. Even racing vehicles use a restriction of some kind in there cooling system. Your motor oil is formulated to run better at hotter temps. With no thermostat you are causing the oil to form sludge and deposit itself in all corners of your engine. Your warm-up time is waaay too long and most likely you are runing a richer mixture much longer than you should. This is costing gas milage and carbon deposits in the engine. Not to mention the temp of the engine is varied throughout..top to bottom..
Put a 195* thermostat in there and you will like what happens. Tell your silly friends to do that too.
Your engine is NOT TOO HOT untill it pukes it's coolant out the overflow. If it does not do that the temp is fine.
Big JIm <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />