Where should my temp gauge ride

Fail safe? Never heard of em... I'll Prolly take the one I got back

Fail safes are engineered to stick in the open position if they fail. I don't have experience with these.

I would say that the thermostat is really designed to stick open when another part of the cooling system fails and the engine overheats. It only sticks open if your car overheats. Otherwise, it's like an ordinary thermostat and still prone to failing itself.

There are plenty of reports on the internet of these failing closed as well as reports of them sticking open even though he owner says the vehicle never overheated or only mildly overheated. Once it sticks open, then you need will loose heat to the cabin and then need to replace it as well as figure out why the engine overheated in the first place and fix that too.

Whatever the cause of your overheating (clogged radiator, bad fan clutch, bad water pump, low coolant), if you experienced that with a normally functioning traditional thermostat, then it would be fully open also. I think the name or title 'fail-safe' is a little misleading because it doesn't really offer protection from the thermostat itself.

Interesting, Scotch.

Like I posted: I use regular Stant thermostats myself.

Here's mine tonight. Recent coolant flush, New 195deg thermostat, And new 50/50 coolant premix.

My truck is 87 b2200 with weber. It rides right where yours is, in your picture. It never goes higher but goes lower! I have emissions taken off too. I've been wondering since I got the truck if its even reading right, or just the temp under the hood!! But regardless, your pic actually makes me feel a little better now. When I bought the truck last month for my son,, I replaced the thermostat with a192 deg Fail-Safe thermo part# 7240-192. Along with a complete tune-up

Looks real good !

Here is mine today after 40 min of highway driving from work.