Temperature of Engine

Hi SprintFolk!
My 2007 Gulfstream Vista Cruiser (2006 Sprinter Year) seems to be operating at a higher temperature for the last few months. I did have a Waterpump replaced soon before this seemed to happen.
It seemed to operate most of the time close to 180 degrees and would get slightly hotter up steep grades, especially on hot days.
Nowadays, it seems that for me to keep it from rising much above 200 degrees, I need to operate the heater, fan, etc while I'm driving up steep grades and hills.
If I don't, it tends to get to about 215 degrees.
So it seems to operate hotter than it used to.
What do you all think?
The dealer said that it seems to operate higher than typical, but that it's still within normal range.
It is a hassle to operate the heater on hot days. Is there a way around this or should I even be overly concerned unless it gets much closer to the red?

Here's the 2006 service manual's take on it.... (for ease of editing, it doesn't show the final entry: brakes dragging)
The three columns are: symptom, cause, fix.


*Somewhere* i think i read that the engine's viscous fan kicks in circa 221F.
But that's my faulty memory speaking... it may take some other action near that temperature.

good luck
--dick

I'd say that its operating normally. 180 to two and a quarter sounds pretty normal. You did not say where you are..... if you were in Texas the last four months, you would see slightly higher temps as the ambient has been in the 100s. The needle on my Sienna's temp gauge runs slightly higher than in a normal year.... just like it runs colder than normal (slightly) when its in the 40s.

You may want to check to see if the fins need cleaning - you have to look very closely behind all the stuff in front to see: http://www.sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12434&highlight=radiator.