Haha yeah the whole cooling system is new... I'm gonna say it was my radiator the whole time.. But it didn't hurt changing my fan cause the new one had a lot more resistance than the old one... It wasn't the water pump or the pressure cap... I think I'd been fine if a shop cleaned my old one but it's done now...

 

pulled radiator out yesterday. checked water pump. water pump was good. radiator had some fins that were smashed in on the engine side. radiator was only about an inch and a half thick. replaced water pump anyway (kept the old one tho). replaced radiator with a thicker (2x as thick) one. radiator was $114 from advanced auto (also made in usa). fixed the problem, finally.....hope this helps anyone else.

 

Did you ever check the actual coolant temp to make sure it is not the temp sender giving you a false reading? You can use one of those baking thermometers from the grocery store. Or if you can borrow one, those point and shoot infra red thermometers work well. In aircraft those types of gauge issues are almost always due to sensors not real mechanical problems.

 

Yeah I checked it with a temp gun and tested the sensor... It's fixed now...