As I slowly work my way thru the 60K check list, I flushed the coolant system toady and installed a new thermostat. I used Prestone 50/50, and some water wetter. With the OEM temp gauge, what are the temp readings? for example if the gauge is sitting dead in the middle of the bands, what is the approx temp?

 

Depending on outside air temp, at dead center with the engine hot and not moving your around 190-210. Moving with lots of airflow your around 180-185.

 

I do not think the OEM temp gauge moves at all within a broad temp range. Mine never moves after it hits center at about 180. At idle I run 220 and on the highway I run 194. In the city it is about 203 usually. The gauge never moves within all these ranges.

 

completly agree catman. I was referring to what the real temps are in the stock range. The factory gauge is useless..

 

The factory gauge is not useless, it is there to let you know what the safe range of the engine's temp is.
Think about this, if the temp gauge on the dash was as sensitive as we would like it to be the average driver would be scared of driving because the temp gauge would fluctuate to much and the car would be in the shop all the time tying up service bays with people complaining that their car was running to hot.
Land Rover knows the exact temp at which one of their engines self destructs from running to hot.
A friend of mine used to be a test driver for AMC and then Ford, they know exactly at what oil psi the engine seizes, what the highest temp the engine can run at and what octane fuel is needed.
If the gauge on the dash says its safe to drive then its safe to drive.

 

When I flushed my coolant, etc, I used a scan tool to read the Engine Coolant Temp and also to evaluate how much effect the AC fans and Blower fan had on Engine temp. I saw ECT as high as 230degF with the factory gauge still right in the middle. That scared me into buying an UltraGage ($50) just for piece of mind. That was as high as I have seen it get and it idles at 203, the blower on heat will bring it down about 8deg. 5mph climbing on a hot trail I never went over 208deg. It seems like the factory gauge has 5 segments - cold, warm, normal, hot, REPLACE ENGINE.

 

I keep hearing about this ultragauge, how do you like it?
Where did you get it?

 

It works well so far. It reads all the PIDs in the ECM, it will give an alarm BEEP for various things like Temp or pending DTC and it can be calibrated for differant tire size. It also works as a basic Trip Computer with fuel info. I have it set-up to read Engine Temp and MPH in large type so I can monitor at a glance. It gives me piece of mind since I am paranoid about engine temp.
www.ultra-gauge.com/

 

Ok, cool, I think I'm going to buy one.

 

How dose the ultragauge get info? PLEASE explain!
Thanks