Where should engine temp needle be when up to operating temp?

[Bmr4life]

My needle hardly ever goes past the first notch above the bottom. When in horrible traffic, it will climb way up to almost over heating, but as soon as i get out in the open and air gets to the engine, it falls all the way back down. is this the sign of a broken thermosat? thank you

 

[Wyatt]

My 2 cars,

My 1990 has had problems ever since my alternater went out, my temp gauge goes down when sitting at a light or in traffic, but when I have plenty of air going over the motor I get the temp gauge near top end, but it goes all over the place until I sit in traffic or at a light it goes back down. I figure I have a messed up guage or a sensor is bad. I changed my thermosat and it did nothing. I still have to get into searching for sensors and see if thats my problem.

my 1987 has guage problem with oil pressure. Blips up and down all the time. Still the car runs fine and figure it might need a new oil pump or a new guage. The temp guage works fine on that car.

For you I would change the fluid and put a new pump and maybe a Thermosat on it, also check your fan, it may not be getting any power like my 1990, I had wired it to the wiper circuit, so its on all the time. Or buy a new fan if it isn't working, try geting some power to it to see if its functional. I have a problem in a fuse link somewhere. Thats why I wired her up to the wiper circuit.

 

[Bmr4life]

My 2 cars,

My 1990 has had problems ever since my alternater went out, my temp gauge goes down when sitting at a light or in traffic, but when I have plenty of air going over the motor I get the temp gauge near top end, but it goes all over the place until I sit in traffic or at a light it goes back down. I figure I have a messed up guage or a sensor is bad. I changed my thermosat and it did nothing. I still have to get into searching for sensors and see if thats my problem.

my 1987 has guage problem with oil pressure. Blips up and down all the time. Still the car runs fine and figure it might need a new oil pump or a new guage. The temp guage works fine on that car.

For you I would change the fluid and put a new pump and maybe a Thermosat on it, also check your fan, it may not be getting any power like my 1990, I had wired it to the wiper circuit, so its on all the time. Or buy a new fan if it isn't working, try geting some power to it to see if its functional. I have a problem in a fuse link somewhere. Thats why I wired her up to the wiper circuit.

which fluid are you saying I should change and which pump? I don't think my fan has ever came on either.

Also, I have the same problem with the oil pressure gauge going up and down randomly when I turn. When ever it does, I just put another quart of oil in the car. No matter when I check the oil, even after getting the oil changed, my dipstick shows that its low. Is that a common problem?

 

[Ray III]

Fix what's wrong, not everything else... lol

Does your electric cooling fan ever come on? Mine does not and it will only cool properly with the car at speed.

You could have an oil leak at the oil pan gasket or valve cover gasket, or be burning oil lke my car does through the valve stem seals. I used to burn about a quart a week of oil, then I started using Valvoline MaxLife and oil consumption was almost halved. You should try that stuff on your next oil change and see if it helps...

 

[Wyatt]

well I would suggest changing your radiator fluid if its been watered down, it may not keep the car cool enough with tomuch water in the system. Plus it rusts a bit and turns orange with tomuch water in it.

Far as my oil pressure dummy guage goes I figure as long as I see some reaction out of it I'm happy. hehe, Try an oil change, 5 quarts and keep an eye on it, such as a puddle under it, also look at the bottom of the car, that might be a good sign to see if its leaking oil, my oil sending unit went out and I had plenty of smoke under my car, it was all over the exhaust making a nice pile of smoke out the sides.

But if your burning it, looks for blue smoke, and a oily deposit on the rear of the car, you might see little black dots on the body.

Also pull the spark plugs, there are some rules about looking at them, I usually look for oil, if that is the case your might have some internal leaking into the cylinders or some leaking around the valves. New head cost me about 20 bucks at the junk yard and about 50 for pressure check of it and a few other valve things the shop did.

Check for cracks also. Clean the engine bay, with a spray engine cleaner and then wash it, you may find your oil problem thru one of these searches.

hope everything goes well.

 

[Ray III]

oops I just saw you said the fan does NOT work... Well what I did was trace the fan wire back to under the dash, there is a harness under there that seems to be a cooling fan control module and if so it could possibly be busted. I took the wire to the fan out of the harness and tied another wire to it to a switch so I could turn it on manually. It also has a loose connection where the wires plug into the motor so check that.

as to the operating temp... depends on t-stat. Stock (195) thermostat should maintain coolant temp at the halfway mark, but it will likely remain cold in the winter because these damned fourbangers don't make piss for heat.

 

[Bmr4life]

well I would suggest changing your radiator fluid if its been watered down, it may not keep the car cool enough with tomuch water in the system. Plus it rusts a bit and turns orange with tomuch water in it.

Far as my oil pressure dummy guage goes I figure as long as I see some reaction out of it I'm happy. hehe, Try an oil change, 5 quarts and keep an eye on it, such as a puddle under it, also look at the bottom of the car, that might be a good sign to see if its leaking oil, my oil sending unit went out and I had plenty of smoke under my car, it was all over the exhaust making a nice pile of smoke out the sides.

But if your burning it, looks for blue smoke, and a oily deposit on the rear of the car, you might see little black dots on the body.

Also pull the spark plugs, there are some rules about looking at them, I usually look for oil, if that is the case your might have some internal leaking into the cylinders or some leaking around the valves. New head cost me about 20 bucks at the junk yard and about 50 for pressure check of it and a few other valve things the shop did.

Check for cracks also. Clean the engine bay, with a spray engine cleaner and then wash it, you may find your oil problem thru one of these searches.

hope everything goes well.

thanks a lot, i'll be sure to try all of these this weekend. One thing I have noticed is that if i sit in park and give it some gas for about half a min, there will be a puddle of what looks like oil on the ground where the exhuast comes out.

also, does my engine temp have anything to do with how hot my heat is inside the car, cause it sucks. it only gets warm even when its warm outside.