RagTop
Old Grumpy
I was in a drive thru at Starbucks that was verrrry long. My temp gauge stayed just about center and I was feeling very satisfied when I looked down and it had shot up to the top of the gauge! I slipped it into neutral and revved it up to about 2K rpm with no joy. When I backed off the throttle the gauge began dropping back toward the middle. That just doesn't make any sense. With the higher revs the engine was pushing more coolant and that should have caused the temp to ease off. When I put it back in gear and let it idle, that should have caused it to continue heating up since it was pushing less coolant and straining against the torque converter. Neither result occurred. When I let it idle, the temp gauge immediately began heading to the middle of the scale. I watched it promptly move down. Something I don't think is a believable result. Could it be my sending unit? I'm hesitant to change it because the last time I did, about 18 years ago, it took three senders before I found one that didn't produce irrational gauge readings. FYI, I'm running an aluminum water pump, an overdrive pulley, a three row 20" radiator, a 160* thermostat, a five bladed Ford fan with that funny offset blade, and no shroud. Ambient was probably around 97* at the time. Suggestions?