Heya people! I just thought I´d run this by you.

My 305TPI rarely goes above 120-130F on the temp gauge (which goes to 260) and my oil-pressure gauge is almost always maxed out at 60PSI, even while hot (I will drop to 30 while idle though when it is hot)!


The car starts and runs fine- absolutely no leaks or abnormal fuel-economy and emissions are ok too.


Is this something I should worry about? Any suggestions what I should check?

I guess I can also mention that after a good drive, the engine FEELS as hot as you would expect as soon as I pop the hood, so it doesn´t seem to be running cold....and the cooling fan does seem to come on after standing still for a while.

Any tips greatly appreciated, Thanks!

/Joe
Sweden

 

Your guages are probably inaccurate. Typical. I'd suggest replacing the senders and verifying the correct readings if possible.

 

I'd wonder about the thermostat. Sounds like what happened to my car when the t-stat went kablooey.

 

Is there any way i can check the thermo without replacing it with a new one?

If the thermo is acting up...would the engine really be running hot with the fan going on? I mena that if the thermo thinks that the engine is only at 110 then why would it start the cooling fan?

 

If the engine temp is very low (like under 160) , it's normal for the oil pressure to be high. My car has a 180 degree thermostat and the oil pressure never goes below 55 psi.
The fan switch turns the electric fan on, not the thermostat....two different things.
That said, the factory gauges aren't known for their accuracy or reliability. Mine were all over the place sometimes. Even with new senders for oil pressure and water temp, if there's any grounding issues in the wire harness, they won't be very accurate.
I would check the thermostat (it may be stuck open or you might not even have one) , just to see if it's working, or replace it (they're cheap) and if you want real peace of mind, get some mechanical gauges for the water temp and oil pressure.
I look at mine sometimes and they're about the same as the factory readings, at other times they're off by 40%!
-Rich-

 

You are not only getting to 120, you are just seeing the tremendous inaccuracy / non-linearity of the stock guage as said above. In my car, my needle doens't even being to move until 160' (read w/ scan tool), 170 is a hair above the 100' line, and 190 is the first tick. Most stock guages follow about that same pattern since you'll notice a stock thermostat car will cruise right around that first tick, and putting a 180 stat in will bring it a little below the tick.

As for the oil pressure, the stock guage and senders are both junk, take any information from them with a grain of salt. If the numbers it is showing you concern you, verify with a mechanical guage.