on some vehicles (especialy late model reverse cooling, and some 4 cylinder engines) air gets traped in the engine and has to be purged before the engine can fill with water. I have never saw this problem with a conventional v8
just a thought- i recently replaced my water temp sending unit to a new one from napa.... it was WAY off! it read over 50 degrees hotter than my old one...i changed it back to my old one, and it read perfect again so i had a bad sending unit.
I did put a new sending unit on from oreilly... I wondered about that but I threw my old one away... I wonder if I shouldnt try a new one since they are so cheap?