Engine Temperature
 

Can your 3.2 drive in southern California's 90+ degree temperature all day long? My temperature gauge wants to gradually move up the scale, still about 1 1/2 block from the red zone, is that normal? What's your temperature difference between day and night?

I drive my '86 Carrera all summer long in Missouri and you are talking temps in the 90's and 80+ percent humidity. My temp. gauge will end up sitting just on top of the middle white line, which I believe is right around 190 degrees.

You should be able to drive it around without any problems. It may run a bit warm when stopped, but airflow should bring temps down as the car moves forward. It should not get hotter and hotter the longer it runs - the temp should stabilize (even if it stabilizes on the warm side).

That's about where mine gets - AC on - hot and humid day. That's as far as it goes though...

To me that is in the too damn hot range for normal driving.

Caliber, that's no good. It should be running closer to 210 or maybe even a little less. If you have that temp gauge in your car then maybe you don't have the correct sender. Did you install the gauge and sender or was it like that when you purchased the car. With the wrong sender the temps will read wrong.

If your car is running that hot then you need to figure out what the problem is. Mine doesn't get that hot here in Houston under normal circumstances.

I have the original temperature gauge. The picture is just for reference for the needle position.

This is the actual gauge needle position after driving in Los Angeles morning temperature about 75 degrees, 20 miles at freeway speed.

The pink arrow is the needle position when driving at 90 degrees for one hour. The needle will move up about half block but never pass the block.

Is this acceptable?http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/P5300083.jpg

How is your tach at 0, but you have oil pressure? Broken?

Those temps aren't too hot. I think the second white mark up is 250.

The ignition is turned at accessory position.

That's where mine gets to too.

Mine used to run about half way between the two middle lines. I think that's normal, but after I sealed under the bumper and around the cooler the temp now runs around the first mark.

Using your picture, I marked where mine sits with the green line. This would be on a typical 90 degree day in city driving, but not sitting in traffic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa... gauge2334.jpg

Normal. The front cooler fan will come on when you hit the white mark above where you are pointing.

Ok, this was last Friday in freeway gridlock. Outside temp was ~80F and the gauge stayed at this level for 45 minutes. No problems?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/HighTemps.jpg

David, that's creeping up there towards where we would like to avoid, but if it was in slow moving traffic then you are fine. Once you start moving at freeway speeds I would expect it to come down.

The mark right above the needle is 250 while the mark below is 195, so you are up in the 230 range which isn't bad for slow going, but isn't great if that's your freeway 60-80 mph temp.

masraum, the temp dropped back to right at or slightly above the middle mark about 10 minutes after we got back to normal freeway speeds. My concern is that if it got this hot in 80F weather what can I expect this summer when the temps go to 90F and sometimes 100F? I usually avoid traffic and will try hard to this summer (for me and the car) but curious if other folks see the same sort of temps in the summer?

Personally I would suggest before you get too worried about your temps, checking for an electrical problem based upon the fact with ignition in the on position and the car not running you have a reading of 3.5 bar on the oil pressure gauge. Obviously you should have a reading of 0 if everything is hooked up OK and in working order.

Todd
Todd

I have the same reading, 1 1/2 hour in 101 freeway, speed of 10-15 mph. It's not the way to drive the 911. I would try to avoid that.