Holy moly, temp temp temp

[kawahonda]

@1 Wild R/T

OK, so I took the challenger for a drive...actually the girlfriend did...and I rode shotgun....had a few vodkas to drink.

My temp gauge needle made it all the way to the right....not  the "tick" mark, but still in the "gauge" part by the time we made it home. 15 miles total, probably 45 MPH average speed. 86F outside...

Not good. It was only a couple weekends ago when I drove it at 78-80F outside, 80 miles, and it rarely ever reached half way....a little bit over at the most....so WTF.....

So what changed? Let's see, I added a little more water/coolant since then. I slightly overfilled the engine oil...but that's it...

Ya'll know I'm about to slam on a LD340 intake....which means new t-stat....I'm considering replacing the water pump, which looks like it has been replaced before since it's black in color. Should I replace the water pump again?

Firing it up when it was in the garage and pretty hot, and revving it, started to drop the temp a little bit. So the water pump is spinning....

I heard the Mopar performance water pump is good...I think the 6-blade one is all I would ever need....

Am I over worrying? When to get concerned? I don't like seeing the temp gauge over 75%, and this time, for the first, it was hanging well over that.....

[Chryco Psycho]

What fan are you running , , rad , shroud possible it has more to do with air flow than water ?

[kawahonda]

Factory fan. Factory large radiator. I shined a bright light, can see through all parts of it. Recently flushed with the 3-stage system you recommended. Has factory shroud still in place....unknown t-stat, unknown water pump (other than not factory).

It literally got to the highest end of the temp scale before we go home. How accurate is the factory temp gauge?

I notice that the "Alternator scale" would read exactly half at absolutely best with totally auto's restoration. Remember I did the jumper cable mod as you guys suggested. Are these two gauges tied together? Should the "Alt" gauge go over half at any time? Most of the time it sits under half.....I read 14.2-14.4 voltage at a slight rev....that to me sounds good.

I wonder if the jumper mod made the gauge inn-accurate. Highly doubtful, though. Lifting up on the radiator cap caused tons of steam and liquid to come out below after getting home....

[Chryco Psycho]

so you are running a clutch fan now ?
Could be a bad T stat , most are made in China , do yourself a favor & get a Stant from Rock auto , I usually run 180*

[kawahonda]

Have no clue. This car is so bone stock I don't know much about the fans. I'd say whatever you'd expect stock is still there. I'll send pics.

[Chryco Psycho]

OK 

[kawahonda]

Here it is.

[RUNCHARGER]

Did the gas and oil pressure gauge peg as well? If they did it is the voltage limiter. Other than that I would suspect the thermostat. Water pumps generally leak, there usually is no problem with them stopping pumping all of a sudden.

[kawahonda]

Oil

[Chryco Psycho]

Ok so it looks like you have a 5 blade clutch fan in there , does the fan spin free when it is hot ?
If so the clutch is not locking up
, it should only be running hot going slow in traffic , on the highway it should have enough air flow so the fan is not needed , if it is getting hot at highway speed you have other issues

[kawahonda]

Gas gauge read accurate the whole time.

Oil pressure is a dummy light..never came on after starting up...

I can spin the fan fine at this point In time, all though it's been cooled now for 30 mins.

That's what worries me is when we got on the highway to come back home, she didn't drop much.

[70 Challenger Lover]

Do you run vacuum advance?

[kawahonda]

Absolutely. Recurved distributor. Vacuum advanced plugged in.  Always a vacuum advance guy. Maybe my girlfriend drove it wrong? She never got on it...too scared. Only several minutes of it hanging at 3,000 RPM.

[70 Challenger Lover]

My new Cuda ran well when I got it but I noticed the temp gauge was at half all the time. Today I gave it a tune up and discovered the previous owner hooked up the vacuum advance wrong. After I fixed it, I noticed the temp needle is now only at 1/3 and stayed there. Vacuum advance hooked up correctly makes a world of difference on operating temperature.

I have found the gauges are reasonably accurate and in my experience, 1/3 is around 185.

[70 Challenger Lover]

If everything is working properly, it shouldn't overheat even if you were cruising at 3000.