new gauges installed - truer numbers finally!

[dizdak]

so i finally picked up a set of sunpro gauges, just the small triple pod. oil pressure, volts, water temp... after running the truck at 65-70mph for a good 15 miles or so yesterday my temp only hit about 140 max, so hit the ford dealer and got a new motorcraft t-stat like i have read in many posts on here.. $21.95.. so get to put that in this weekend...
oil pressure i was a little concerned over till i did more reading on here, it held about 37-38lbs of pressure running 65mph warm, and at idle wsa about 20lbs... from what i have read on here the oil pressure is not to be alarmed over...
next step for guages is gonna be EGT and boost in pillar pod...

 

[whiteboyslo]

140? Man, even with the thermostat stuck open, that seems pretty low, as in 'is your gage working properly' low.

Mike

 

[hesutton]

That water temp is certainly low, but like you said, the oil pressure is fine.

EGT and boost are good additions to the list of gauges for sure.

Heath

 

[dizdak]

the guage should be working correctly, it did hit 160 after i shut it off for a few minutes while getting the part from ford... then once i hit the road it cooled back way down again... i may get in there and find that there is no thermostat at all, prior to me getting the truck it came from texas, and the undercarriage has practicaly zero rust so i would assume it has probably been in the south all to most of its life...so someone may have had temp issues and removed it.. i have done that many times on gassers down here... i will know saturday, gotta go get some anit seaze and thread sealent and all the good stuff to hopefully only do this job once..

 

[icanfixall]

What you may find with the low coolant temps is the rubber band around the thermostat body has broken off and is stuck in the valve of the stat... I have read about that happening before too.

 

[dizdak]

thanks.. i will tear into it saturday morning.. i am curious to see whats up... i know since i got it 2 yrs ago it has never built much heat.. just out of curiosity could the engine not getting to proper running temps have been hurting some of my power / performance this whole time?

 

[79jasper]

IIRC, it takes the hotter temps to run efficiently.

Where do you have the temp probe?

 

[dizdak]

i put the probe in where the factory sensor was, it was a pain in the rear getting down in there to get things tight.. i still have the other sensor for the high temp warning hooked up...

 

[dizdak]

old t-stat out, it was a motorade brand, nothing like the new motorcraft from ford. and it was stuck open.. new t-stat in, hauled the gooseneck into town to get a truck for a buddy, truck ran about 190 is all, only hit 195-200 for a couple minutes when i was really hammering down on it..

 

[ZWilson07]

Good to see you got the problem figured out and fixed.

Everything seems to be running normal now.

 

[dizdak]

thanks.. i was happy to see very clean radiator fluid coming out when drained, and the little t-stat that was in it was just a stuck open.. but the new ford motorcraft one replaced it and hopefully don't have to mess with it again for a long time to come