Temperature
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Temperature
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???
Junior User
Joined: Jan 2005
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From: san jose, ca
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.
Fleet Owner
Joined: Sep 2005
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From: Lake Tahoe, Nevada
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.
Posting Legend
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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.
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.
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Post Fiend
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From: Island Southeast Alaska
Originally Posted by Redneck1465
Where do I locate the gauge sender wire?
Hope this will help.
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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
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
