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It was on mine. Even after changing the engine with one that had only 64,000 miles it would run up to the red zone. I put a new 195F thermostat in, which I'd tested in a pot of water on my stove. It opened right at 195.
So I put the 180 thermostat in and it'd still run up too high, then it'd cool down when the fans kicked in. The thermostat would close and it'd heat up again. With the 180 thermostat and the adjusted fan temps it runs an even temperature like it ought to and cool enough so the pistons won't expand too much.
At 195F it's running at the edge of what a 16PSI cooling system can handle. What caused the overheat which messed up the original engine was the radiator cap got a little weak and I went for a drive up a mountain. Easiest thing to do is put a new radiator cap on it once a year, especially if you drive a lot.
Going to a slightly higher pressure cap might be a solution, if these early 3100 engines didn't also have the problem of blowing head gaskets.
As it is it's a marginal reliability design. GM should have designed it to run a 20PSI cooling system so there'd be some headroom between working and boiling then damaging the pistons and ruining the engine.
If you change the thermostat and the fan temps it *will not* have problems because the temperature range will be well within the capability of the system to keep it from boiling.
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