Well, I have made some progress tonight, I got a new stat and got it fitted, took an age to bleed the system up, anyway after about an hour or 2 i decided it was time for a wee test drive to try help things along, so off up my private stretch of road to give it a good rinse out, temp gauge read normal and i had some very nice hot air out of the blowers, untill I eased off the gas then it went to luke warm again, got back on the drive and checked all the water pipes I could get my hand into, they are all at the point where you can only hold them for a second or 2, and I even have hot water in the header tank (which I have never had since owning the car) would it be feasible to say that possibly the aux belt that drives the water pump is worn? thus only pumping the water when driven hard? thats my next theory anyway, new belt tomorrow night. Now I know why I went away from Fords about 15 years ago when my XR2 shat itself.