230 degree temp gauge

quote:

Originally posted by Keithstoy:
My car has the 230 degree temp gauge. My question is what temp is the mark between the 160 and the 230 mark. My car stays at that mark all the time no matter what, and I am curious what temp it is. I will take a guess at 200 degrees?????

(230 + 160)/2= 195

No matter what? I trust you mean once warmed up it reads the same. If it is at the 195 reading as soon as you turn things on...somethings broke

If it is a stock gauge, the REAL temperature is up for guesses.

Temp sender should be in the block, not the stock surge tank location. And to learn what the gauge is really telling you, you'll need to run the car with the surge tank cap removed and check that water temp against the gauge temp.

Larry

With the manifold that came with the block they're is no place for the sending unit, I now suspect it's not from the car originally. I put in the ten ohm resistor. Temp is real consistent, running a little cooler since it's cooled off here. If your saying the mark is at 195 that would be a releif. It dosen't spurt coolant and after a twenty mile drive they're is no hissing I think it's close. Summer time might be another story?

The only way to tell what your real temp is is to either shoot it with an IR gun (easy way) or put an oven thermometer in the swirl tank, start the car, and let it slowly heat up. Don't rev the engine much or coolant will spill out of the swirl tank. Compare the reading on the oven thermometer to that on the temp gauge to have an idea of what temp equals what...

Oh, and the sending unit should go in the block, not the intake. The intakes are dry so there shouldn't be any coolant going through there!

Good, I was driving myself crazy looking for it. Where in the block does it screw into. I tried the hole by the thermostat, but the threads were wrong. I will try the temp gun idea, just to verify the reading. so the line between the 160 and the 230 is 195, just to confirm?

If your engine isn't boiling over, then there's not much to worry about.
Charlie has a great post.

I have the same guage on my car and I think the mark denotes 180 or 190. I'll verify with my IR temp gun tonight and post the answer.

quote:

shoot it with an IR gun

Where do you shoot it?

I was going to shoot the IR gun at the top front of the block just above the water pump where the temp sender is. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my car hot enough for the temp gauge to reach the hash mark between 160 and 230. I know my temp guage to be accurate within 2-degrees from checking the block temp at the sender location with the IR temp gun when the guage read 160. My guess is that the mark indicates something in the 190-195 range. I have a 180 degree thermostat and my guage only reaches a point half way between the 160 mark and the unidentified mark.

Cheers!
Garth

The president of my local P club said it's 190 degrees. Now after putting lots of miles on it, it runs way below tha mark with no problems at all. The engine is either breaking in or more air pockets are getting filled up??

quote:

...it, it runs way below tha mark with no problems at all.

This is good. What is the temperature rating of your thermostat? I had a 160-degree thermostat and my gauge rarely registered over 160, except it did climb to about 185/190 on a 105-degree day in stop and go traffic. Now I have a 180-degree thermostat and the gauge only reaches the half-way point between 160 and the 190 mark.

You might want to bleed your cooling system again to free any trapped air now that you've driven it a bit.

Cheers!
Garth

I gave up on the stock gauge. I installed a mechanical VDO gauge instead. It matches the rest of the VDO gauges and Hall tach/speedo faceplates. With a 180 thermo, it reads 185 on the average day, 175 on a cold day. Runs up to 200 when the 195 fan switch kicks on. +/- 5 deg aint too bad.

I'm running a Pantera performance 160 degree t-stat and a billet restrictor. Seems to run 180 degrees on a seventy degree day. I still need to replace my one gallon antifreeze jug as an overflow bottle. It splashes antifreeze onto the header and makes really cool smoke, I kinda like it???

Update, I installed a large "Checker auto parts" overflow tank. It is a direct bolt on, very nice fit and it is see thru. I also added A surface tension additive, and it did help by a few degrees. On to the bodywork!