Yeah, radiator size doesn't matter if the Tstat is properly working. Radiator size doesn't matter if the Tstat is working, because you can't cool fluid that doesn't get to the radiator. I would believe that the Tstat could be bad if you had a minor change when you changed the radiator, but not that big. You should still come off of cold with the car idling for a while in the driveway and the fan off, no matter what.

Don't jump to conclusions and assume it's the thermostat though, the engine could be working just fine and the gauge could be wrong. On most cars this generally means that the ECU thinks you're running cold also, even though you're actually not.

Drive the car around for a little bit to get it at steady state, and then let it idle for a while. It should come up to some decent temperature (with the fan off) even if the thermostat is stuck open. If this is not the case, you may have a coolant temp sensor problem. That is very common also. You can find troubleshooting procedures in a a factory manual, and most likely online too without much trouble. You just need a multimeter, and the testing is very easy.

Just out of curiosity, was there any wiring modifications involved with the new fan?

Thermostats and coolant temp sensors are both cheap and easy to replace though, so get to troubleshooting.

 

If the gauge is not meant to be used with that particular sensor resistance range, the gauge is going to look like an inaccurate pile of crap. The gauge may work great, just not with that sensor range. All temp sensors are not the same, and therefore all gauges cannot work with all temp sensors.. That is why many temp gauges come with their own sensors, and the reason that some gauges are car model/brand specific (to work with the stock sensors).

So don't confuse gauge quality with sensor compatibility.

 

That has everything to do with the limited range that the gauge reads. The temp sensor is accurate over a much larger range than would be necessary to read with the gauge, so small sensor problems can make big gauge problems.

 

I was calling it a pile of crap because it has a ) shape on it with a H and a C and no numbers or useful information as to what temperature the motor is running at.

 

Maybe you should try measuring engine temp instead of motor temp..

I wasn't defending the stock gauge, I was just explaining its behavior.

 

Thanks everyone, LOL drag isnt usually this much help to me


okay thanks to all, im going to go and buy an after market temp gauge, mainly because I need to see exactly what the temp is. And judging on that, determine whether or not its a problem, and then go about correcting it.