Running Hot, or Not?
 

New to me '96 GT. 95,000 miles on a stock motor.

I have put a couple hundred miles on it now, and one thing that concerns me is the temp gauge. After 10-15 minutes of running, the temp gauge is on the upper half of the "normal" range - probably sits right about 3/4 of the way up on the gauge. I realize that the calibration of gauges vary from vehicle to vehicle, but it surprised me that the gauge sits that high in the range. The car runs great, and I am not overflowing any coolant. Once the car is warm, it really doesn't move appreciably up or down, even after an hour in stop and go traffic with air temps in the mid-80's. Am I worried for nothing?

Thanks

It doesn't sound like it's overheating, at least not yet (you should probably confirm that with a thermometer/pyrometer first though). Does your radiator fan work on both low and high speeds?

The low speed fan is supposed to kick on at 206 and goes back off at 200, the high speed fan kicks on at 228 goes off at 224 on a stock motor.

Didn't even know that there was a two speed fan. I guess I need to check fan operation. I have an IR type thermometer - would that be of any use? If so, where would I want to measure temp?

Thanks.

The thermostat housing is a good place to check it, the closer the better for an accurate reading.

Just got back from a 20 - 25 mile run. Temp gauge was hovering just below the "A" in "Normal". I popped the hood and took my IR thermometer. Measured several points on the thermostat housing - it was reading between 185 and 190. The fan cycled a couple of times while idling in the driveway. At this point I think I am going to chalk this up to the temp gauge calibration, and not an overheating engine.

There is a temp gauge sending unit that could be out of specs.

Accutach used to have a really good write-up about gauge calibration, but I can't seem to find it on their website at the moment. Fortunately, I downloaded some of that info a while back, which states that a water temperature of 190°F should have caused the sender to generate approximately 28 ohms. And according to the service manual, the temp sender's resistance should be 74 ohms at the cold mark, and 9.7 ohms at the hot mark.