Pinto Car Club of America

Question? My temperature is normally 190dg during normal driving. But this past week it will climb to 200-210 and drops back to 190. Is this normal? but my car has maintained 190 without going up since owning the car. Do you think i need to bleed it?

Ford Anglia,
       You have not mentioned how long you have owned the car. But your problem may be caused by mineral deposits building up inside the radiator. Depending on your area. I personally use distilled water only in my radiator. If you put in a brand new radiator and use distilled water with your anti-freeze and the temp. is still the same then you need to change the thermostat. This is because a thermostat will temper or re-temper itself to the lowest acheivable cooling system temp as a whole over time. Which means that if you expose a 160 degree thermostat to a cooling system that will go no lower in temp then 190 degrees the thermostat will adjust to that temp. And I have found this to be true in a daily driver to begin to happen in as little as two weeks.

                                                                                                                        High_Horse

First check your fluid level.   If it's OK, it could be that you have too much anti-freeze in relation to water.  Make sure it's a 50/50 mix.  If all those elements are correct, then I would recommend recoring or replacing the radiator.    Change the thermostat & antifreeze at the same time. 

I'm a firm believer in do the easy stuff first. I'd backflush the cooling system, then replace the T-stat & add fresh coolant. I don't know how the cooling sysyem in your Anglia is setup, so, I can't tell you if it needs bled or not.
Generally a cooling system only needs bled if the cap is lower than the highest part of the cooling system. Most modern cars, this is the case.
If you run an electric fan, you may want to test it to see if it's not only working, but pulling the correct amount of amperage.
Finally, your water pump may be starting to go bad. Though, I'd check it to see if it's leaking, before you call it bad.
There really isn't much to the cooling system on these engines. That makes diagnosis a snap.