I have had this truck for nearly 3 yrs and it has served me well. I have done as much preventuve as I finacially can but the question is, when I turn her on, she seems to warm up fine, when I pt her in gear she begins to over heat and the the temp gauge gets very hihg! LIKE TO THE H but, not red light high. Then the temp drops. If I keep her in a gear with higher RPM's she seems to stay cooler than normal. Is this the water pump maybe? Replaced thermostat 2 yrs ago and I also tried to bleed the system by letting it run and gurgle out air bubles with cap off. Can anyone help me. There is no water in the oil, checked that. No whie smoke from tail pipe.....HELP PLEASE

 

I will move this to the 1st generation Dakota sub-section.