I have been fighting this cooling system for a while now. My dash temp gage was only going as high as pictured. I changed the thermostat with a 192 and it still never rose any higher. I noticed my cooling fan is engaged even on a cool start so the clutch must be seized up. I blocked the rad with some cardboard to see if i got a temp jump and had none. I know the coolant temperature went up because I actually got half decent heat from my vents (heater core not clogged but im guessing it needs replaced?). I replaced the sending unit and still no change on the temp gage. Anyway after running it with the cardboard i felt the top rad hose and it was very hot. I touched the bottom rad hose and it hadnt even warmed up at all. It doesnt seem like I have good flow but when I squeeze both radiator hoses the coolant level in it rises. Radiator? Water pump? Why is the temp not rising above what is pictured? Thanks for the help guys...

 

Mine barely gets to 185 at the highest on the higway with a 180 tstat. Gauge reading is not accurate so without something that actuall measures more accurately, yours may be good. Lower hose should not be as hot as upper hose, and if upper hose is hot, then tsat is opening up. These trucks appear to have an issue with air getting trapped in coolant system and that could be part of your problem. Try raisning the front and run with cap off and heater on. THis is called "burping" the system to get the air out. There are several threadss posted here on this. It is somewhat of a challenge. When I filled mine after replacing stat I used a set of ramps and it took quite a while to get all of the air out.

 

I think that's about where mine runs. Why do you want it to run hotter? Heat no good? Try flushing the heater core for that and see if that helps.

 

I am in the midst of flushing the cooling system. I have already flushed the heater core. When I flushed the heater core last(about a year ago) I burped the system real good. I will do it again when I refill the system. I am guessing the heater core has issues but like I said the temerature gauge never went up when I blocked off the radiator with cardboard. I know the gauges arent perfectly accurate but I would love to have it work properly so I dont overheat.

 

To the OP, have you tried verifying you temp with an OBD blue tooth app or a plug in scanner?

 

I have a 2003 dodge durango. had a water pump leak. and change it. filled system with coolant. started engine and coolant started poping out like pop corn. i finnally put the radiator cap on and the engine overheated. changed the thermostat. still the same effect. beside the fan clutch it does also have an electric fan which never came on. i check the fuse and it was fine but didn't show any power at the plug. even ran 2 wire to the battery to see if the fan was any good. got nothing, so i don't know where the problem is or if there is a sensor to keep it off even if going directially to the battery. so here is my questions does the electric fan have anything to do with the thermostat opening up. is the fan bad and do i have a blown head gasket. the engine runs smooth. don't know what else to do. i thought about taking the thermostat out just to see if that changes anything. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

if you don't trust your temp gauge maybe you should go buy a cheap electric or mechanical one. i picked up a cheap electric one for my truck for $17 since i needed to know what temp my engine is running at since i installed the electric fan. mins runs about 200*F with a 195* thermostat.

 

Thats a good idea. Im not too terribly worried about it overheating now that winter is setting in, and since my cooling fan is on full time. I think I may just go ahead and get the elec fan anyway since my fan clutch is out. Almost completed the heater core flush, and everything seems to be flowing fine through the radiator now since I did a system flush. Coolant coming out of the rad and heater core was almost brown at first. I think it was due time.

 

sounds like someone was running pure water in the engine if it was coming out brown.

 

After talking to Dodge parts dept. and explaining to them that I had a water pump leak and change the water pump, the thermostat and fan cause it wasn't working either, I was told cause i bought after market parts It could be a stuck thermostat or bad water pump cause I didn't by it from dodge. The person I was speaking to asked someone else in the parts dept if they had any suggestion and I was told I need to burp the system, by removing the pipe plug on top of the water pump. I use a small funnel and added almost a gallon of coolant thru the small hole, till the coolant level came up to the water neck . By doing this the system burp twice. I reinstalled the pipe plug and radiator cap. ran the engine and it never got over half way on the gauge. problem solve. This is a bad designed by dodge with the filler neck in the upper radiator hose because of the angle of flow being lower than the top of the water pump and you can't add coolant with the engine running., All it wants to do is spit out like pop corn. the nornal style radiator has the neck above the radiator and upper hose allowing you to fill the system and also allows the system to burp. I guess in a nut shell i wish known about removing the pipe plug sooner and I wouldn't have had a fight on my hands trying to fill a system with coolant.