My F150 Temp gauge goes up about 1/4 when driving. Is this a normal range?
I have flushed my cooling system and replaced My thermostat, stock temp range .

Here is a picture of my engine fully warmed up , idling :

 

It looks right to me. Thats right about where my gauge sits when its warmed up.

 

100% normal, mine has never went higher than that except for 1 time... right b4 the red, and I logged it, it was at 250*... I put a new water pump in it and a lower thermostat, and flushed the coolant. No more overheating.

 

 

Care to translate that into something us ordinary people can understand and relate to, Steve?

 

Looks about right to me. Those gauges only know "cold," "operating temp," and "overheat."

 

glc
It's pretty straightforward. If you can operate a voltmeter & a thermometer, you can test your ECT to find out if it's giving the proper signal to the EEC & gauge.

Quintin
No, it's full-range analog sender & gauge system. Only the oil pressure is a fake.

 

Steve, when did they switch over to the fake temp gauge? I think I understand that my 03 is a fake and actually works off cylinder head temp, not coolant temp.

 

This is what it looks like to me. 97-98 have separate ect's for the pcm and dash gauge. My dash guage shows a steady climb during cold start warm up and the needle stops at the exact spot shown in the photo, and stays there. I also have an Auotometer gauge which tells me the spot where the dash needle stops is around 170*. The Auto meter continues to climb to 205* after the oem has stopped moving.
I know the oem works at a higher temp range, as I forgot to put the fuses back in for the efans once and it climbed.:o

 

It would also vary on the thermostat in the truck. Both my 5.4's show right in the middle. And I believe they have a 190 thermostat from the factory.

 

NEVER.That's not fake - it's actually showing the real temperature of the engine, which is what you really want to know. It's just using a new type of sensor that's dry.

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Your truck's PCM probably isn't the switching type described in those diagrams, and you can still test the CHT output with a common voltmeter.