Curious, where does your temperature gauge read once the car is fully warmed up? It seems mine might be running colder, but not knowing these cars that well yet, that just might be how it is?..

tkz

 

Your temp gauge should be reading about 180 or straight up or a tad past . The only reason you should be lower is if you have a 160 degree t-stat (only certain people with performance builds opt for these) factory is 180 degree. And second is you have a bad t-stat, which will happen, there have been a handful of members having to change their Monte's t-stat's as of late and then they are back to normal engine operating temperatures.

 

Actually factory is 195 and if you read the numbers on the gauge they are not evenly divisible by the marked increments, but straight up or 2 graduations down is ok also, however if your not far above 140 you might want to check your radiator to see if your using coolant, if so, the upper intake manifold gasket is going, I know, I just went through this, and have the same car 02 SS, I replaced the upper and lower, if your using coolant, or your getting white sweet smelling exhaust, (that's coolant), you need to get that fixed, I did it myself, there are write ups on this in the forums. good luck to you, I ended up towing mine home, I was using coolant and kept tightening hose clamps and what not, and then it ran hot coming home, I refilled it, and it started running cold and died, anti freeze dumped in the cylinders, I got lucky, after flushing the oil and radiator with distilled water (t-stat removed), it's running better than ever now. around 250 bucks for parts and fluids, I already had my own torque wrenches. if your not using coolant and your using more gas than it should , it could be the coolant temp sensor

 

I'm guessing the thermostat, and a good coolant flush would fix it. its running great, and no sweet smells/smoke from exhaust, just hanging low, and goes up as I drive, but long distance... never gets to the middle as suggested though.

 

Heres something to think about....

I have had mine for 15 yrs.... When I initially purchased it new from the dealer ship (I special ordered mine)... It ran really cool almost cold....

Over time/mileage it began creeping up towards the middle..As mentioned previously by others... Then I noticed even on ashort 12 or 14 mile drive it would creep up into the 210 degree area of the gauge... and of course no matter how fast or far I drove on the freeway it pretty much sat right there... and of course once I arrived home and parked it in the garage...
The heat rising off of it was pretty scary... Til eventually I had to change out the UIM/LIM gaskets.... Having done that..a complete flush, changed out the T-stat. (Which was a 195) Factory T stat... I replaced it with the stock one... But I also decided at that time to also replace the radiator...
It currently sits back where it was when it was new... in the cold range ...just a tick above ... So for some models its normal... to show it running a bit cooler than other temp sensors... IMO.. it varys from vehicle to vehicle...

I did also recently see Jason (Maniac) and had him do some adjusting on mine as well.. (Computer) Now it also runs the fans after I shut it off .. like it use to when it was new.... I really have no idea when they stopped doing that.. Before I had Jason readjust it.

 

Sounds like I might be just fine running cold. Again it's winter here, and the temps were around 30F when I drove it (about 40 mins highway, so it sounds like it might be where its supposed to be... seems like it takes a while to warm up, so thinking a Tstat issue, but I'll flush the system anyhow with a preowned car like mine, I just don't trust people that are non-mechanical/ignorant to maintenance. Sorry to sound that way, but breaking down bites,

 

Regular Maintenance is the key to making your Monte Carlo's last and run at it peak performance...
Mine currently has 170,000 miles on it and still runs like the day it was made.

 

I agree 100%, don't beat 'em like you're 16 and chk everything periodically, not to mention fix lights on dash asap so you don't build up code upon code like I'm dealing with now from the precious owner