thats not good. Mine has never been past the middle notch other than when i replaced the water pump and thermostat and forgot to burp it. I would be worried about warpage if its pegging out like that. letting it idle after hard driving helps cool off the turbo but your engine should be running way cooler

 

well i don't have a turbo, and i wouldn't call it "pegged", its only one or two lines past the happy middle line. I never worried about it too much to be honest.

 

Did you even read the entire thread?

 

It's normal for all cars for the temperature to go up for a while after you turn them off. As long as it doesn't overheat, it's fine. Also, that's not called heat soak.

 

oops...my bad.

 

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I've noticed it only happens once the oil is up to temp. Is the water temp sensor close to an oil channel? Maybe thats the reason...

 

Mine behaves like CCA4's, but it drops back down to midpoint in the first minute of driving again (it reaches one line past midway). And yeah, there's a lot of heatsoak on these - Brie's engine needed an hour and a half to cool before we could start the t-belt job on Saturday. Fortunately we had lots of beer on hand

 

^^Nice pic

 

Thanks man, that was from the NE spring meet BBQ

 

I disagree about the coolant just sitting in the pipes comment. Its definately not circulating as it normally does but there are convection currents. The coolant enters the turbo (yes, the KO3 is oil/water cooled) heats, and then rises towards the coolant tank where it cools and drops towards the radiator bottom. This recirculation helps cool the turbo without the need for a timer. I do still allow cool down time while I drive and I let it idle between 15 seconds and a minute. But theres not a need for sitting 5 minutes idling.

To the OP, I wouldn't worry. You're in texas and thats hard on a cooling system. If it doesn't get higher than that you're fine and it stays by the middle line while driving its not an issue at all! If it becomes an issue or you really want to do something you could get a low temp thermostat. This would allow your fan to come on at a lower temperature and begin cooling earlier.

I do know these cars seem to run hot under the hood. You can just smell it, smells hot. Thats why I took off the covers, they seemed to just hold heat and they could burn you they got so hot!