[Gregski]

well Good News with the heater bypass hose the truck no longer overheats, the gauge sits just barely to the right of center (wish those notches had some numbers like 180*F or 220*F, etc.)

here it is after 10 minutes and again after 30, which would have overheated by then without the bypass hose, I kept driving hard for an hour (twice the normal overheating time ie 30 mins) and no problem the needle did not move

after the truck cools I wills see if it needs to be topped off with water as there was some water loss during the bypass hose installation

Remember: Key to proper troubleshooting is making one change at a time and one change only, no matter how tempting to do other things. Then reading the results and deciding on whether to make another change, etc.