How do modern cars regulate temperature so well?

318willrun said
I won't argue about it. You can hit the disagree all you want, but when I sit in a drive through on a hot summer day, my temp gage doesn't move but the electric fans will kick on at a certain temp. That tells me the engine temp raised but the gage did not. It's true in the newer Dodge mini vans, my 'stang, etc. Also, I don't care where others chose to run their cars for temp. Mid 70's Shop Manual states 190* stat is standard equipment, and that is to ensure you have a Happy Heater in the Winter and emissions, not because it's where the car is the happiest. Again, I couldn't care less what anyone runs their temp at, I'll run mine on the cool side.

Hey, do what you want. Running an engine cold causes more wear on the components, but whatever. 200°F is a perfectly normal operating temperature. My 340 is much happier at 200°F than it is at 160° or even at 180°, which is why I bumped up the temperature on my fan controller. Factory gauges are calibrated so 195°F is pretty much dead center in the middle of the gauge. Why do that if that's not the temperature it's supposed to be? Gauge doesn't show it being hot, and if that's the only gauge you'd think it was perfectly normal.

My factory gauge, autometer gauge and fan controller. The factory gauge has a factory sender, the autometer has it's own and the controller runs off the autometer sender. The autometer gauge itself reads a little hot, but that's just the cheap gauge.