I have an 85 F150 351W 4v. I drove it back to college from home tonite (about 4 hours away from home) and the temperature seemed really low. The temp gauge has the word NORMAL in it and almost the whole way down to school the guage was only at the N sometimes it was below it. Is this a problem or will the truck be okay???

 

well unless you used to having it run warmer than that, your guage might be busted, and if its not, it running cool is nothing to be worried about, it running cool is a good thing my 82f150 always runs pretty cool even in the summertime.

 

That truck should be running at 190F. Chances are your thermostat has failed. Gauge failures are very rare. It's not terribly uncommon for a temperature sending unit to fail, but usually if you get a reading it's ok. You can double check by putting a candy thermometer in the radiator to see what the temp actually is. Most likely case is that your thermostat is simply stuck in the open position.

 

To test your gauge. Unplug at sending unit and put it to ground. If gauge is OK it will peg the gauge all the way to the hot top.

 

Running at the proper temp will save a lot on fuel and prevent accelerated engine wear as well as improve performance in a stock vehicle.

BTW, only ground the gage sender wire momentarily or you could burn up the gage.

The thermometer in the radiator may read a few degrees lower than thermostat operating temp.

 

Thanks Torque1st I should have said that also. I undestand now why you are Super Mod. Really thanks.

 

U R welcome!

 

Where do I locate the gauge sender wire?

 

I am not positive. My Windsor is in the boat under 2 feet of snow and ice so it would not be easy for me to go and look. I think the sending unit is on the intake, but could be on the side of one head. the wire should just slip off the sending unit. Have someone watch your gauges with the key on and momentarily touch it to ground. the oil presser sending unit looks about the same. So if you get the wrong one it will just peg the oil presser gauge instead of the temp. Oil pressure unit should be low on the drivers side of block.
Hope this will help.

 

Thanks im pretty sure I know whwere it is know.

 

Most of the Fords that I have owned have run on the cool side. Maybe some manufacturers skimp on the size of the radiator but Ford doesn't seem to do that.

My 1981 F-250 4x4 with 300 I6 and 4-spd. runs on the lower 1/4 of the temp gage but runs pretty good for a 25 year old truck with 145k on it.

Had a 1994 Ranger that also ran cool until the sending unit went bonkers and then it was all over the place. Local Ford dealer could not figure it out until they found a Ford repair bulletin on it. Sheesh... like it was rocket science or something! After 4 tries, they did get it fixed... finally.

Ed

 

the colant sending unit will be on the top by your thermo. right around the upper rad hose.