cold air intake results

just got my CAI this past week and installed today. it was 1 of the cheaper ones that i bought from americanmuscle.com. WOW! it made a difference on SOTP and pulled nicely. the previous owner never changed the filter.
the engine seems to run a little hot. i bought mr.gasket 180* tstat and water wetter. will this help drop the temps down ? i live in south florida, so the weather is pretty hot

the filter is in the fenderwell but it didnt have the heat blocking shield on allowing some engine heat to come in. installed it after class today and it seems cooler than before. temps were fine and didnt pass the "R" on gauge. im going to install the tstat later on while adding some water wetter.