Iv'e had this nagging issue with my truck. It's a 1986 w150. It had a 318 in it that never ever got to operating temp ever, no matter what I tried. That 318 died so I dropped a 360 in it and same issue. It's not the dash gauge, cause it reads low and is verified with my IR temp gun at thermostat housing. thermostat is a 195 and I know it's good. I blocked off the entire radiator with cardboard and got the temp to come up and the IR said 194.5 at thermostat housing when I saw the upper radiator hose make a tiny jump (thermostat opening). Motor has no emissions equipment attached. cast exhaust manifolds, no heat riser(it never made a difference when I engaged it with a hand vac pump). Dual 2" exhaust, stock Chrysler mufflers. I timed the motor at 13btdc, Have a vac advance distributor. had vac line disconnected and vac port plugged when I timed it. reattached when done. Iv'e tried as low as 4btdc and everywhere in between, no difference. The advance does function properly. Motor had a ratty 800cfm thermoquad that dumped too much fuel, so I just recently swapped it out for a Holly 600cfm. stock settings, the motor runs way better but still cold. So i hooked up the vac gauge at a port on the carb base and leaned the idle circuits just until the vac started to drop. motor still cold. It never gets any hotter than 170 on a hot summer day sitting in traffic. and gets worse in the winter. Your thoughts!?

 

If you're not up here in the frozen tundra, I WOULDN'T be complaining! Cool running older engine is usually a good thing - ESPECIALLY in summer with the a/c cranking!