i base this on the stock gauge. when the car sits overnight i start it up the gauge stays down til it warms up, when its warmed up and i'm driving normal it stays half way all the time until the afternoon rolls around around three or four the needel gets up to the L on the NORMAL gauge. Now if your needle were to get that high i think you would get pretty worried aboutwhats going on.I put the t-stat in this morning drove not even a half a mile and it went up all the way between the A and the L. I took out the t-stat the temp went back to halfway and stayed there the rest of the day. I put my fans direct becuase when i dropped in my PI engine thecoolant sensor for the fans wasnt working and everytime i went to autozoneand bought a new sensorthe IDIOTS would give me the wrong! so i wired them up to be on direct for a switch. If your saying i'm paraniod, its probably becuase this is my third engine that i have gone through becausemechanics have screwed me over, i dont have warranty on this engine and unlike some poepleI dont have a couple of thousand dollars laying around to rebuild my engine if something were to happen to it.