What would cause my 87 318 truck to run 220-230 driving and then cools off to 190-200 at idle? Has new water pump,fan clutch,radiator,thermostat. Is this normal?

 

No that is not normal. Could you have a collapsed hose? Hoses have multiple layers and the inside can collapse while the outside looks normal. Have you flushed the block lately? You may have partially blocked water passages in the block or heads.

 

I did flush the block and no change, I guess the next thing is to replace the radiator hoses just to be sure. The new hoses do not have the spring inside them, is there a place to buy the spring?

 

Did you stay with at least the same number of cores in the new radiator as the old one? All hoses don't have the springs and I have never seen them for sale by themselves but that is a good question if they are available.

 

When I used to work in the auto parts biz, I saw a couple "bad out of the box" thermostats. Was it running hot before everything you did? Try running it without the thermostat and see what happens.

 

Head gasket ??, I had the same problem and found excessive pressure in the radiator when engine was cold. Pushing water out the overflow hose through the cap when idling cold, check that.... In other words there was over 16 lbs of pressure in the radiator when cold. Pull your small hose off from below where the radiator cap that goes to the overflow tank (ONLY WHEN COLD), see if water comes out a bit when cold....if cap is good,,,,,,,,,, chance its your head gasket.