2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Not Up To Operating Temp?

[SwampSurvivor]

Is the van making heat? What is the sensor reading?

I helped a friend rehab a neglected 2002 Neon. It was only reading 1/4 on the temp gauge on the cluster. Turns out 1/4 on the gauge cluster is 200F.

 

[meep]

aftermarket t-stats are hit and miss. I've had good luck with stant super-stats, and the last time I swapped one, the napa t-stat was a super-stat. I've had a couple of experiences with cheaper units being wonky right out of the box, like the regular stants. People often swear by oem, but some of those fail reasonably early too. We had a 2003 T&C lose it's oem t-stat before 80k.

The thermostat's job is to keep the engine at operating temp. If it's not reaching it, replace it.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
All 3.3/3.8 VC's are steel.


This is not correct (though they were steel in 2001, the subject van of this thread). They went to plastic in the 2005 time frame. Our 2003 3.3L had steel valve covers and our 2007 3.8L had plastic valve covers.

In fact, the photo on this engine's Wikipedia page shows the plastic valve covers used on later models:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_3.3_&_3.8_engine