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Been searching and it seems like 205-215ish is ok for my 390 with 195 thermostat ? Hooked up my temp gauge today in a temporary fashion I was pretty tickled to see it stay at about 200-205ish consistently.... When I shut the motor off it climbed to 220 ? is that pretty normal ?
Was a cold mother in the shop and I cant justify any more firewood for a bit but I couldnt resist filing her up with coolant, new hose clamps, plugged her in for a few hours to get the block warm, fired right up, tightened hose clamps when at operating temp and got a good water reading... ended up putting my temp sender in the coolant elbow like many others have, now I have the stock unit which still works and the elbow post thermostat opening reading
That sounds like a good water temp to me. It is a bit over T stat temperature sitting still. Rolling down the road with moderate temps and moderate load, you should probably see 200-205 with 195 stat.
Heat up after warm shutdown is normal for an iron head engine. The heads hold a lot of heat. When the coolant flow stops, heat seeps out of the heads and warms up the top of the cooling system including the temp gauge. With anti-freeze and a 14+ psi cap, it should not boil at 250F+. On re-start, it should cool right down after a minute or so.
I'm getting low on firewood and pellets too.......have burned waaaayyyy more this winter than normal........been a cold SOB....I'm over it!!!! Where in NV are you??? I'm SE Idaho...
78 PEB, Im in Elko, so you know what we are going thru...... It hasn't stopped since November, now the sub zero temps ....... Cant burn anymore wood in the shop, gotta save it for the house...... offset the furnace costs..... Can not wait until the miserable winter is over... Dont think we have gone more than a week without a blizzard ....
Good Water Temp ?
I was pretty tickled to see it stay at about 200-205ish consistently.... When I shut the motor off it climbed to 220 ? is that pretty normal ? 
ended up putting my temp sender in the coolant elbow like many others have, now I have the stock unit which still works and the elbow post thermostat opening reading 
....... Cant burn anymore wood in the shop, gotta save it for the house...... offset the furnace costs..... Can not wait until the miserable winter is over... Dont think we have gone more than a week without a blizzard 
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