Hey guys I am working on my dads truck a 1997 dodge ram 1500 with a 3.9L V6 non AC truck. I just replaced the cylinder heads and in the process had to replace the temp sensor because I broke the original one.


I was wonder if anyone could tell me what temp the truck should be running at?


I had some air in the cooling system at first and it was getting way to hot fast. I do believe I have got all the air out. but I think its still running to hot. it seems to run right around 210 to 220 ish






Thanks!

 

That is to hot you should be between 200* and 210* max. I would keep trying to get all the air out. Try parking with the nose of the truck higher than the rear and see if that helps.

 

How do you know it's 220ish? Hook up a scan tool it will tell you the actual temp. Should run at 195*. Did you reset pcm by disconnecting the battery cables and touching them together?

 

Merged duplicate threads. Thanks for the head up Rick.

 

Do you have the stock temp t stat in it? What is the ambient air temp? Start the truck and watch the temp gauge. You will see when the t stat opens the temp will drop a bit when it reaches it's opening temp.

 

I was just going off what I seen on the gauge didn't have access to a scan tool at the time.


But now I do and the scan tool says I am running at 199.7 fully warmed up.


But the gauge is still way over 200 I put a new temp sender for the gauge in it and also one for the computer when I did the heads 2 weeks ago. Maybe my temp sender/ sensor is bad and reading to high?




Thanks guys!

 

What year is your truck?

 

1997 dodge ram 1500 3.9l V6

 

Ok, your gauge is just lying to you then. Did you use any form of thread sealer on the sensor? If you did, take it back off, clean it all off, and thread it back in dry. It should be pipe thread, so, slightly tapered. Sensor grounds thru the manifold.

 

No I didn't use and thread sealer. It came out of the box with pipe thread on it. I am saying it's a bad sensor if not I am not sure what else it can be........