thermostat

does anybody know what the range of the thermostat is? My car has a wide range of temperatures it likes to run at, and it bugs me. It runs anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 way up the temp gauge, and I'm pretty sure there is no air in system. The gauge doesn't spike to different temperatures like it would if there were air pockets. It does seem to change temps rather quickly, though, and if I accelerate hard up a long hill the temp will climp all the way to 1/2, but then drop down to 1/4 after going down the road a bit again. Is that normal? The car just got a new engine and it never did this with the old one.

normal

the coolant temp can range from 180 to 230 degrees in normal driving. A 195 degree stat can range from 185-205, then you have to take in to account where your guage sensor is (rear head) and the t-stat(where upper hose goes into engine) and that will account for the other 10-20 degrees in temp fluctuation. AS Fireplug said, your temp changes are normal.

thanks for the replies, like I said I was only concerned because the old engine didn't do that. I will forget about it now.

My '97 runs in the range you described, will go to just over half if idled for a LONG time, coming back down as the fans cut in. Driving, it runs in the range you described. With the A/C on and fans running, it sits at about 1/3 like a rock and never moves.