what is up with everyone having the 180 t-stat? is it stock or does everyone buy it? what is the point?! i am new to all this of this mod stuff

Stock t-stat is 195°. A 180° stat will make the engine run cooler and will be beneficial in the long run (longer engine life).

It's a pretty cheap mod. You probably wont notice much of a difference. It makes sense, you can do this for $10 in an hour.

Don't forget to bleed the air out of the system if you do it.

Actually the reason is that it helps to reduce KR. If your not taking it to the track and your not gonna mod it I wouldn't worry about it. And for the GT guys on a stock motor it won't help much at all.

oh. I have a 2002 GT, and everything is stock, i actually just picked it up on saturday and was considering what i wanna do to it. so that 180 t-stat helps the enginge life? or does it not matter since its not racing?

On a stock GT that's gonna stay stock. Stick with the 195. 195 is the designed temp for these cars. People drop in cooler Tstats to help lower head temps to help prevent knock. And when you add forced air knock is the number one killer. So all the little things add up in the long run. By the way there is a such thing as too cool so don't get too wrapped up in a cooler running engine will last longer. The engine will last it's longest when operated at it's intended prime temp.

not to mention... can someone tell me when the fan kicks in? lol.

Hercman is right.
Part longetivity has been argued either way, but the KR is the real issue.

I have one in my 2001 GT (with light mods) and I'm glad I do.
I also have an Intense PCM, so that and the 180 stat work nicely together to keep the temperature down. And since the aftermarket PCM messes with some engine adjustments, I actually do get a bit of KR which the 180-stat helps with.
Without an aftermarket PCM the 180-stat is useless. And to really notice improvements from a PCM, you'll want to get some sort of air intake (CAI, FWI, etc... do a forum search on these), and possibly exhaust work (do a search on u-bend!).
Have fun!
Bill