Teething Issues

After limping home, I continued the attacking the problem of overheating. With the stock 2002 temperature sender and gauge, the reading looks like this:

While there might be an electrical issue that makes the reading a tiny bit higher than it should be, the M42 just runs hotter than the M10. Also, the sender on the M10 is in the water neck, while the M42 has the sender in the head. 

I borrowed an infrared thermometer and checked the hose temperatures after driving around with the fan on. The results are as follows:

Temperature of top radiator hose: 185F (85C) 

Temperature of bottom radiator hose: 132F (55.6C) 

IR gun pointing at the temp sender up under the intake: 183F (83.9C)

Looks good to me. I might buy a new sender, just to see if that changes anything, but it seems to be happy at the moment. I'm also going to try out a new thermostat with a lower temperature setting.