Temperature Sensor/Gauge

[PlayingWithTBI]

Don't pay any attention to your temp gauge except for it's in its "normal" range. Verify with a scanner and/or IR gun

 

[Caman96]

Our gauges don’t have a highlighted “normal” range. FWIW this morning I let it come up to temp and with a cooking temperature prod, I held it against upper radiator hose inlet above thermostat. It held steady at 175°. Now, I’m sure it would’ve been higher if I had it touching coolant inside inlet.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Our gauges don’t have a highlighted “normal” range.

What I meant by "normal" is where it normally stays when everything is normal.

 

[Schurkey]

each tick do not represent 13.75, its not linerar.

So true, and almost no-one realizes it.

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The gauge is calibrated from 100 to 260. That's a range of 160 degrees. Half of that is 80 degrees. 100 + 80 = 180. 180 + 80 = 260. So 180 is the mid-point. But the half-way mark of the gauge is 210.

 

[kennythewelder]

That was my question in my initial post and was exactly what I was thinking.
The picture you mentioned is from east302(post #6), my needle NEVER goes that high. Only goes up to where he marked the yellow. So, you feel that yellow mark indicates 180°?

Yeah, about that, but keep in mind that the OE gauges, are not real accurate. Before I installed the 180° thermostat, my truck has the OE 195° thermostat. It ran a lot closer to the 210 mark. About 1 mark below. Also before the electric fans, the temp would fluctuate somewhat. It doesn't do that anymore.

 

[stutaeng]

Yeah, they should of just put something like: TOO COLD, N O R M A L, and OH $HIT! on the guage instead of the numbers.

 

[Caman96]

Yeah, they should of just put something like: TOO COLD, N O R M A L, and OH $HIT! on the guage instead of the numbers.

I like that^^^. In High School I knew this kid that had I think a 1974-76ish AMC Ambassador. The highest setting said “Desert Only”.

 

[Caman96]

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[AuroraGirl]

…somewhere in the normal range, lol. To me, it’s not really a gauge since you cannot readily interpret a number on it.

Ford, like @AuroraGirl mentioned, sort of gave up any pretense of accuracy with their gauges.

The oil pressure gauge, by comparison, appears to show an actual value since the tick marks are incremental.

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THIS was a hard car to own because that needle would live JUST above the notch it is almost over. Absolutely no scale, small scale to begin withh, and no digital readout on the DIC unlike my buick which has a similar guage. so always anxiety

 

[L31MaxExpress]

All pictures taken in over 100°F heat.

This was a few weeks ago with the 383.

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This one was from ~9 years ago with the old 350.

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In both cases idling with the a/c on will get it up near 200°F via the PCM reading and as soon as the van starts to move down the road it will settle down somewhere between 176°F and 182°F. The dash gauge will drop down right to 1 hash below the larger 1/4 hash. It has had a 170°F thermostat for years.

When it was completely stock, it was not unusual to see it at or above the 3/4 hash.