Trying to figure out if this is a potential problem or not... 1996 6.5 Chevy Suburban. Has a new waterpump. Here's the odd part, the temp gauge barely gets about 165F. Haven't driven it under any loads but with no loads on sounds very low temp wise. The heater blows some warm air but nothing I'd really call hot. Has a towing package and so forth installed.

Anything to worry about here or what's going on?

[I'm almost wondering if the temp switch is bad or corroded up somehow while the truck was disassembled for the waterpump. It sat for about 4months as the previous owner never got around to fixing it]

Stuck thermostats would cause the temps to stay low. It will also burn more fuel trying to warm up. Replace them ASAP. You don't have to dump all the coolant to do this. If you can park your truck on an incline, get yourself a syphon and connect it to the overflow hose going to the coolant tank. Syphon off as much coolant as needed to get the level below the thermostat housing. Make the job pretty quick.


just read your sig. you've only got one thermostat. all else applies.

Mine has always stayed around 165...it's the thermostat that's in it. I prefer the 165 degree t-stat...no point in running at 180 with the way our heads heat up. THe temp in mine only climbs higher when I'm towing heavy, and try to push her on up to 75-80mph. Won't hurt it any, and I dont think 15 degrees is gonna burn much more fuel (if any) I could be wrong, but it doesn't make sense to me.

To answer your question, NO, it won't hurt anything.

I don't know if my t-stat is any good, but I run about 165-170 when it is cold out and have reached about 200 when it is really hot outside

Mine did that when the thermostat was bad. Get a 195, been discussed to death before why this temp. is best.