stock water temp gauge not reading right, and pinging???

[yellowstang1994]

Hi guys, for the longest time I thought my stang did a really good job of keeping things cool. Starting through last fall I been having a really bad pinging problem that I cannot chase down at all. Which is weird because when I got my car it ran amazing and it's basically stock. I'm out of good ideas except for the cooling of my car. Just recently I now suspect my coolant guage is bad. It sits below the normal line and doesn't even get into the normal range. Along with my oil press. gauge they never return to the starting position when the car is powered off. On occasion the temp gauge will rise a hair but not very often. So now I come to the question of... could I be overheating and not realizing it? Lately in the hot weather we have been getting here I never heard my car ping this bad in a long time. It'll be alright if I don't give it too much gas and keep the shifts around 2k rpms. But anymore and it's ridiculous. I can't remember the last time the coolant was changed so I'm going to try and do that this week. I guess I should get an oil press. gauge and coolant temp. gauge since my stockers don't seem to be working at all. Hopefully this helps the HORRIBLE pinging issue. Anybody else have any ideas?

 

[HISSIN50]

That sounds like a real plan. Me thinks you will be surprised how hot you're running, esp if the radiator is original and ambient temps are up.

good luck.