Getting back to this...
Mechanic said actual temperature reading showed it was operating as it should with the new thermostat. I thought variations in temp readings according the the gauge in the dash were unusual, he did not think so...he just thought maybe I was watching the gauge more. It did seem to me that temp reading used to go up and then be pretty stable, but maybe he is right...
Oh and he also said part of the problem may be the gauge in the car, said it seemed to respond very slowly. He did tell me that the middle of normal was 218 on my car and the N was 188...kind of nice to know that. So I am guessing in my case the L might be around 238, then.
He said he put in a 195 deg thermostat in...is that unusually low? I thought cars were supposed to run hotter than that these days. I used to have a vehicle with actual temp gauge and it used to run at about 215 I think.
One last thing...Is a "normal" reading on the gauge in our cars supposed to be when the needle points at the word "normal" or does a normal reading include everything between the two lines. I always thought it was everything between the two lines, but mechanic says only the word. Of course, if I ever got up to the "L" I think I'd be doing something about it anyway...but just curious. Well, maybe I should have checked the manual first
...but I did not think of that until after I typed this paragraph.
