Problems solved...wooohoo...She is running great...Just wanted to give a quick update incase anyone else makes a couple boneheaded mistakes like I did.
First the "running hot issue"...it was air trapped.. I judt didnt refill it the proper way and didn't bleed the air out..the little bleeder valve on the elbow at the thermostat did the trick. quite a bit of air.... And I'll bleed it again after I put a few miles on...its easy enough to do..But I feel pretty dumb because my house has baseboard hot water heat, and every fall I bleed the baseboard rads.......When it came to the car I just wan't thinking straight I guess...Oh well live and learn!

And the second problem...hard shifting.....when I took the car for a ride this morning I notice putting the car into drive or reverse was a pretty hard shift also. So I figured it was a vacuum leak.... cheked the vacuum lines that I had to disconnect, but they were fine. Then I glanced down and saw the disconnected line going to what I'm assuming is the torque conv on the transmission...I was soooo happy when I saw that....connected it back up and it is running great!

I'm so glad I found this place!...Thanks to everyone here!!!!!

The port coming off the piece sticking in the transmission is actually called the vacuum modulator.

Glad you got everything up and running...and for a fraction of what it would have cost to take it in and get it done. Plus you get the satisfaction of a job well done by you.

Good work!