Quote:
Originally Posted by G.M.
You need to get a laser pointed thermometer to find the correct temperature of the water. The radiator temperature is NOT the way to check it. G.M.
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OK. I give in. No more of my wife's candy thermometer in the radiator.
I went down to the scout office and got my trusty Official Boy Scout issue
Red Rider Laser Pointed Infrared Instant Trigger Fired No-touch Thermometer* and took the following readings to see what the engine temperature was at different readings on the dashboard gauge.
Start with key on and engine cold (45 deg. ambient temp). Here's how the gauge reads at minimum:
Then warmed it up to 1/4 on the gauge. Here it is with corresponding temperature:
Then at about 5/8ths on the gauge. In answer to the original question of what is normal. On my car, this is the low end of "normal" range. This is what it's on the whole winter. This is the temperature the thermostats keep it at. (Oddly enough, this is exactly the same temperature shown on the candy thermometer in my radiator earlier. Maybe that wasn't so far wrong.) Forturately, I have the Super Deluxe fresh air heater so that even with this winter high temp of under 140 I can get roasted out if I want to.
That's as high as I could get before the thermostats opened and I had to block the radiator to get it any higher:
Then 3/4 on the gauge:
Then as high as I could get the temperature to go idling at about 1500 with maximum draw on the generator to add some load. In the summer I regularly see this reading on the gauge on long climbs on a hot day. I don't worry too much about it and even a little higher as long as it's still on the black mark. It has never boiled over there. Past that mark it may well blow although I've never got that high.
If I had been able to get it hot enough to open the left sender it would have gone to maximum (same as key off.) That's probably the point that it would blow.
Hope this helps.
*Thermometer is actually a Raytek MT4 I got off the shelf from NAPA for $60.00.