Forgot to say I've replaced the radiator, fan clutch. Never flushed but I have changed the coolant with toyota red when I changed the radiator old coolant looked fine.

 

The cooling system seems to be working fine. I'll check the temp sensor tomorrow. It's a pain to get to I was hoping some one else had dealt with this and it was because of where the sensor was located above the cross over. No hills for mountain climbers.

 

Gauge shows high after sitting but is the actual temp too high?

 

You know with the ir Guage it seems to be about 210

 

That's warm but not overheating just yet I don't think. I'd be suspicious of maybe a radiator that's not flowing well, how does it do on long steep grades or driving around town? You might want to install an actual permanent temperature gauge (and maybe an oil pressure gauge too). It's possible the OE sender for the gauge or the gauge itself isn't working well with it's advanced age.

 

I appreciate the reply. I switched to 10 w 30 this summer and it did bring oil pressure up. The radiator seems to be working fine. I've had about 5 toyota pick ups over the years could have welded the hood shut on all of them. This 3.0 is a different animal.

 

Is the level good in radiator and did you burp it well after changing the radiator?

 

Yes it seems to be working fine. Measure the heat on top radiator hose and the bottom radiator hose and its working like it should. I don't know it gets so hot when I shut it off. It's old i guess. Runs like a top.

 

Had a Crown Vic in the shop recently that was "overheating", guage would go all the way pegged red, fan would come on eventually when driving, gauge pegged red the whole time, turned out the gauge sender was faulty and reading higher temp than actual temp. I wonder if your sender is failing, thermistors drop resistance as they get hotter and Toyota usually have a chart for resistance vs temp. Grab a cheap multi-meter with a K type thermocouple, use a little aluminum HVAC tape to stick it to the thermostat housing next to the gauge sender, and compare the actual temp vs resistance as it warms up and then after it's 'heat soaked'. You might find that at 210 the sender is out of spec and showing a higher gauge temp than actual. It's also possible that a failing component on the gauge itself is showing the temperature as exaggerated, had that over a decade ago on a very old 80's GM with some bad parts in the gauge cluster, there was a high resistance on a connection so their fuel gauge always read higher than reality and they kept running out of gas.

 

Thanks I'll do that. And let you know what I find.