Ok,
I drained the coolant (although, I could never get to the tiny block screw). But trust me, the coolant was pretty much drained from the block

I follow the factory service manual and how-to posts suggestions. I filled the radiator all the way to the brim, sucked some of it down into the reservor, and back up to the brim of the pressure cap. Installed pressure cap, started car and let it warm up. Rev'd it a few times to 3000 RPMs. Coolant temperture on the instrument panel was stable. Turned off car, and let it cool down. Upon opening the pressure cap, the fluid was at the same level as before.

I'm worried that the thermostat doesn't have enough fluid around it to open up and allow coolant to flow through. I don't want to warp anything, so I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions. There was nothing wrong with the coolant system before - so it highly doubtful that its a faulty thermostat. I would estimate, that I've put in almost 5 quarts of coolant into the system. I know the standard level is 6.3 quarts of coolant.

Any suggestions?

 

Let it idle.
Make sure the fan turns on when temp rises.
Got heat on your vents.

And your all good.

 

i usually turn the heat on, let it run with the cap off to warm up while adding coolant and squeezing the upper rad hose to suck some coolant to the thermostat. the fluid level will keep going down in the rad and you keep adding until it's full.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The warm air is brilliant - don't know why I didn't think that route. Started car this morning, heat from vents. Drove it to work. No issues.

Thanks again.