[noahe]

My MCS temp guage sits right at the bottom (disappears) when the key is off, and reads one needle's width lower than exact centre mark when it's warmed up.

I have another question. The car warms up very quickly, like in under 2 minutes to operating temperature. It then takes a very, very long time to cool down again. I.E. on our road-trip, if we stoped for a dinner and a movie off the highway (3-4 hours) and got back in the car, the needle had only cooled down a few more needle's widths.

I know a cast iron block hangs onto the heat... But then shouldn't it also take a little while to heat up as well? I've never owned a car with this trait.