Where should the needle be on the temp guage?

[Rich 89 Gr. Wag]

For the most part, mine barely gets past the end of the blue field on the guage. I'm wondering if my thermostat is stuck open.

[Monkeyboy]

at least your needle moves.
Mine doesn't even budge

[chrism]

On my stock gauge that area is right about 180 degrees.
I have a 180 degree thermostat so thats about right for me. During the summer months it runs just above that point. Thinking about putting the 195 back in to get a little more heat for the winter time.

[rockjeep44]

I run dual electric fans and mine hardly ever gets out of the blue which is great for summer. In winter I just shut one of the funs off to get the temp up to around 180 or so. Not that I need heat. I don't have a roof smile.gif
-Andrew

[Bob Barry]

Right above the end of the blue is the perfect spot. That's right where the thermostat opens, so your radiator is cooling the engine very efficiently.

If it didn't rise above the blue, then you'd be running too cold and need a higher-rated thermostat.

[crazyguy]

blue??? bottum of my factory temp gauge is black, middle is green, top I think was probally red at one time but now looks light pink. mine never gets out of the black(bottum quarter, gets to bout the middle that range. but it also dosn't go up to the begining of the range when power is on, stays way below the bottum. I get plenty of heat from the heater and put a new thermostat in when I put a new rad in this past summer. it may actually be running cool though as I do have a 3core V8 rad in front my 6cyl

[Bob Barry]

Different years had different colors for the ranges. I think my '78 has the green also. Blue is for cold, green is for OK, and red is for "Danger Will Robinson!".

If your truck never gets into the normal range, you may have a thermostat stuck open or a sending unit/temp-gauge combo that doesn't read accurately. (yeah, that's been known to happen... ;) )