a 160 thermostat will help the engine make more power, if it stays that cool, but it won't run as well on the street. Just depends on the application. For street use, I prefer a 180 stat. For pure strip no stat with a flow restrictor is fine too.
Not true. Many cars have come from the factory with 180 deg thermostats, 160 is just fine also, no additional wear.engine wear increases at low temps. a certain amount of heat is needed (usually found to be around 180 degrees) to have the least wear especially on the cyl. walls.
The 195-205 is for emissions. Hotter coolant increases knock and reduces power.actually most cars have 195-205 thermostats these days specifically because the higher temp reduces wear... its especially important because modern engines are designed with tight tolerances and a lot of engines dont have thick enough cylinder walls to allow for an overbore. the cutoff is about 180 for wear... any time you run an engine at a temp lower than 180 the cylinder wear increases exponentially the colder it gets.