Where does your needle rest on stock gauge?

[nextelbuddy]

Ok finally got my stock gauge working correctly today thanks to matt and mccoy over at TRM. they were able to down size my M20 sensor to M12x1.25


anyways my cooling system is stock e36 radiator, stewart water pump, 325i 80/88 thermostat and the lower temp fan switch as well. Stock e30 aux fan



needle got to half way mark in cluster and then it went past half way a tad (left side of needle was touching right side center marking) thats when the fan cut on and the needle went back to half way mark.


so pretty much my needle gets to half way as expected, rises to past halfway slightly fan cuts on and goes back to half way.

i dont really seem too worried about it other than the fact that so many others on here seems to chime in and swear how proud they are that their stock cluster needle gauges always stay below half way mark and never budge.



it makes sense to me that te e30 needle will read higher than middle because 24valve engines run hotter than stock, even with a lower temp thermostat with a little hole drilled doesnt seem to effect the temp gauge reading much if any


and the people who have gauges reading below half way all the time i think are not reaping the benefits of an engine that was designed to run hotter which makes more power and is more efficient.

BTW i do really like the E30 temp gauge much more than the e36 one. as the E30 one actually moves i real time compared to the e36 one that doesnt or not at as much at least.

[LowR3V'in]

middle of gauge is about 200-210f.

[Danny]

Mine was sitting dead on at half when I drove it for about 15 minutes with open headers, I still have some bleeding to do however.

[Dominic49]

my needle runs up to 3/4 at drift (ie low airflow over radiator) events even with a 16inch spal high performance but mainly sits just to the right of center.

[etxxz]

i'm a good amount under half way. once it got to half, but i was in traffic behind a car with with electric fan off then i was like duh! and turned it on. 1minute later i was back down. Oil was sitting at 190F then too. 20w50 idling at like 7psig -.-

[nextelbuddy]

i'm a good amount under half way. once it got to half, but i was in traffic behind a car with with electric fan off then i was like duh! and turned it on. 1minute later i was back down. Oil was sitting at 190F then too. 20w50 idling at like 7psig -.-

see thats what it is, all you guys with temps showing below half way are guys running electric pusher/puller fans with a manual switch and you are leaving the fan on the whole time to force your temps to stay under half way.

you should not be doing that, your engine at below half way is not running efficiently power wise or gas milage wise. fans should be triggered by a thermo switch properly unless you are at a driving event or idling excessively and even idling excessively the engine should never overheat with a proper cooling system.

[Wh33lhop]

see thats what it is, all you guys with temps showing below half way are guys running electric pusher/puller fans with a manual switch and you are leaving the fan on the whole time to force your temps to stay under half way.

you should not be doing that, your engine at below half way is not running efficiently power wise or gas milage wise. fans should be triggered by a thermo switch properly unless you are at a driving event or idling excessively and even idling excessively the engine should never overheat with a proper cooling system.

Airflow over the radiator doesn't dictate operating temperature--the thermostat does. You can have 10000CFM flowing over your radiator, it's not going to do shit if your thermostat isn't letting coolant flow through it. Airflow over the radiator is never bad. Think about it; do you think an electric fan is really going to flow more air than the car doing 80mph on the highway or 110 down the back straight at the track?

The only downside to leaving rad fans on all the time is the noise, the extra current draw and that it will accelerate wear on the fan.

[Good & Tight]

Mine stays in the middle or just a touch to the right of it. And it's turbocharged with a/c.
Stock thermostat and water pump. 1300cfm 16" spal slim puller fan on the radiator and a 870cm 12" pusher on the condenser. The intercooler is also in front of everything.