Engine Coolant Temperature

I see the temp staying right at 180F in the winter time and maybe rising 2-3F when at a standstill. Otherwise, stays pretty consistent. I use the Ultragauge exclusively these days, so I'm not sure where the analog gauge rests when we are at temperature.

 

174-176

 

BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!
the temp gauge is useless in the truck... My ultra gauge says 180-190 normal driving, gage shows just above 9:00. When the truck gets REALLY hot 204-212 it also shows just above 9:00

 

The factory gauges are set to temp ranges rather than actual temps. Example: "Cold" is 80-160, "normal" or 9 o'clock for us is 170-200. To get the needle to hot or overheating it has to get very hot like 230. This prevents normal or stupid drivers from coming in complaining that the needle moves too much or that is normally at 185 and now it's 190. They are like the idiot lights from yester year that came on when it was too hot and too late. People didn't like that so they gave us something to watch that moved a bit. They are better than lights but are not meant to be accurate. Like why the guy running no thermostat didn't know until he hooked up a scan tool. This is why I like scan gauges, they will give you actual numbers that most drivers would find meaningless. To us a rise or fall of a few degrees means something.