The lower temp thermostat in salt is something I've heard for years, I think for sure for certain Mercruisers both a 140 and a 160 were available. However, I've looked high and low and have never seen 140s available for OMC/Volvo engines. I've always used the standard 160 stat and the only overheating issues I have had, have been from impellers that had taken a 'set' and did not pump that well, and mostly barnacle build up in the water intake area in the lower outdrive. What I'm now adding to my maintenance schedule is every other year to split the upper and lower units and scrape the barnacles out of that area and paint that area with anti fouling paint.
Graham if you ever run into a low raw water issue you might want to take a look at that. Depending on your fouling conditions, it can be pretty bad. Splitting the drive (and this applies to the Volvo SX as much as the OMC Cobra because the design in how they go together is very similar) can be difficult for 2 reasons. One, the bolts can seize in place unless they get backed out, cleaned off and coated with OMC gasket sealer or similar every few seasons. The other, is that salt deposits will build up under one of the 3 "O" rings that seal the upper and lower drive housings and make it well nigh impossible to get them apart. I came up with a little trick for this in case you ever need to do it
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