I have a 95 F150, 302, auto, ext cab long bed, 100,500 miles.
The gauge on the dash shows engine temp hot at the "A" in normal.
The fan clutch was shot, I replaced the clutch, t-stat, sending unit
for the gauge and drained the cooling system. The water pump didn't have
any play, and a slight bit of drag (normal for the impeller in coolant?)
Now I'm running a little cooler, the gauge in "R-M." The a/c has no effect, in fact the a/c blows cold. and running the heater has no effect in temp gauge. No codes stored in pcm. Using a infrared temp gun, the t-stat housing is at 198 deg, the intake behind the t-stat is 204 deg or so. the upper radiator inlet at about 185deg and the water pump inlet is about 158deg. These were taking at operating temp (i think) with the engine running. Never boils over, dosnt push anything out to the overflow bottle. Do I have a more indepth cooling system problem, (thinkning radaitor / water pump? or a guage problem, or is this normal?

 

my 95 4.9 runs on the front side of the r consistantly

 

Sounds to me like it was running a bit warm, but it looks like you nailed it. Both my 95, and my 96 always ran with the needle between r and m when fully warmed up. I'm not to saying that these guages are in any way accurate, but in my experience they are pretty consistent, and any time mine hovered past the M, I have something that is not right.

 

all the temps you took are right on for a 195 thermostat so I think you are OK. my guess is your gage is reading a little high.


Bruce

 

You can try swapping in a cooler thermostat and see if your guage reflects the change

 

stay with the 195 it is what your truck needs. you have verified the correct temp so ether Chang your sending unit or just get used to the new position of your pointer on your gage.


Bruce

 

Its been a while since I'v had an older truck. I just sold off my 02 Harly F150.
Man what a power differnce with the 5slow. But its payed for now, so its all good. I just seem to remember these trucks running cooler by the gauge. I just need to clean up the rig and take some pics.

 

Don't put any weight on the Ford stock gauges and more as a vague reference(how accurate can a gauge with a C and H be?) than a real way to keep tabs on things.

My old 4.9 was always cool. Normal driving in temperate weather would just reach the "N", in winter not even that if the heater was on.

The 5.8L I have now runs right at the "r", right in the middle.

If you're really concerned, just replace the stock gauge with a "real" gauge and swap out the temp senders(you may not even need to).