That infra red temp gun is kinda 'the way' , or sure a nice non-intrusive
internodes way to see what temp you are really running at.
You'd like o see 180ish degree coolant coming out of the engine.
I've found vanagon temp gauges generally to be very, very accurate.
Like dead center is 180. 
Scott 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Vdub Guy
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 2:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: 2.1wbx into 85 GL

<Cooler is not better, warmer is.
This 'cooler is better' is left over from the air-cooled days.
Do whatever you like, but you are costing yourself considerable $ / year in
wasted fuel costs, not to mention shortening the life of your engine>

And back from the days when water cooled cars had carbs and no computer
controlled anything. Back in my old bracket racing days we'd always pull the
thermostats on our Chevy Camaros (after the first of May) because the
thought was cooler was better and produced more HP-that was then and this is
now. However, I'm not convinced what my gauge is reading is accurate. My
heater output is excellent ( I know the other day you said that's not an
indication of coolant temp, but the only time I've had a stuck open
thermostat the vehicle had NO heat) So that leaves a suspect gauge. My fuel
gauge is flaky as well, list archives say swap the voltage stabilizer for a
flaky temp & fuel gauge-did that with no change. Also checked and cleaned
all the grounds as well-still no difference.  I need to get or find someone
with an IR temp gun and see just how cool/warm this engine is running.
Coolant hoses also get nice and warm, too.    Jeff