Sorry, by 10-11 o'clock I mean that it was barely above "L".

Also, if the tstat is working correctly I would imagine that the car would be roughly the same temp while driving as it is at idle while parked.

That was not the case. It sat right where I thought it should while idling, but while driving it was barely even warm.

 

By l I mean c.

 

Exactly which BEGI reroute did you install?

Their "racer" reroute belongs in a garbage bin.

Their "standard" reroute can be OK, but BEGI has some options for it that, again, belong in a garbage bin.

Details please. And pix.

You could have saved money and installed the mt.net "standard" reroute. It would work too.

 

Stock gauge hardly reads a difference between 180-210*F.

There is a mod write up to make it more linear.

Did you do the normal reroute with the yukon hose and the Begi spacer? or that really expensive one on the Begi site?

 

Thanks to all of you who have posted experiences with coolant reroutes! The info has been very helpful.

I'm about to install my BEGI spacer and Kia water outlet as part of the cheap coolant reroute, with Escalade hose, etc.

After seeing reports of trouble getting things to seal at the back of the head, I checked the parts for flatness, and found a problem. The Kia water outlet was cupped about .010" The BEGI spacer was much better but still not flat.

After spending some quality time with a file on the water outlet, I lapped both parts on #400 emery paper, glued to a piece of glass. The parts now meet without any gaps.

The longer of the two bolts supplied with my spacer *is* too long. I'll either get a shorter one, or shorten the one I have.

Hope this helps!

 

I'm running a 180F thermostat (working). It apparently starts to crack open around 155F. Driving on the Interstate it takes more than 15 minutes to get to above 160F with low outside temps.
Idling it gets up to temp much faster and the fans kick in and out as they're supposed to.

Your temp gauge is really only a three-position indicator. These things are so non-linear it's laughable. So all you get is 'cold' | 'normal-ish' | 'waaaaayyyy too hot'.
My stock gauge would only start hitting the center at 185F. So you may actually be at 170F with your typical reading of barely above 'L'. They also differ substantially. I measured two different sensors and their resistance at room-temperature was quite different.

 

I used the link below to mod my stock gauge. Fewer parts than the popular mod recommend m.net.
Linear Temperature Gauge Mod

I didn't install the needle until the fan kicked on and I used the android torque app to tell me what temp that was. With the needle straight up at that point, I get a better sense for whenever it may be getting too hot. Just a cheap solution until I get a real gauge.

 

Definitely the gauges have significant dampening, there are some graphs around by KiwiNB on m.net showing this. I wouldn't trust a stock gauge more than cold, warming/warmed up, hot.

I have found the sensor (not gauge) readings to be repeatable from one sensor to the next (not sure about the actual accuracy of the reading though). I would think there is something wrong with one of your sensors if you see large difference between two sensors. Just remember sensor resistance is finer than 1*F, 50 ohms is not going to translate to 50 *F. I think the resistance range for temp sensors is easily from hundreds of ohms to thousands (ie you may see 300 ohms at 200*F and 3000 ohms at 50*F). All of these are just random numbers, no real math. The FSM has some data on temp sensor resistance and expect temperature.