diesel engine temperature

Hi All
bit of a newbie with rangerovers to say the least. I cant seem to get the temperature gauge much above the blue cold bit. I'm trying to rule out,temperature gauge,temp senders,thermostat one at a time. To this end,has any body ever recorded the engine temperature/. I have one of these infra red thermometers and was wondering if anyone had ebver used one at a particular point on the engine when their temperature gauge was reading normal so to speak. I know its a bit geekie but if anyone ever has that would be great.
Oh by the way,I get low heat on the internal car/cabin heater after about 10-15 miles but never,oh its so hot i have to turn it down hot even after a 100 mile trip.
If anyone could help I would be most grateful,
thank-you to anyone who contributes..

Owned her for 4 months,loving it,
jobs done so far,oil filters etc change,new condensor,tmx valve changed,drier changed..no more book indicators on the air con,bliss
All tackled with the help of you guys on here and your experiences,so a GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO ALL YOU CONTRIBUTORS you really help us dullies out no end

Sound like its over cooling
Typical symptom of a missing/faulty thermostat

As GF says I'd reverse your list and start by checking if you've got a stat.

As above, forget the fancy temperature checks and sort the stat. Also check the viscous fan has not seized.

Check stat and viscous fan as others have said then I would remove the temp sender in the cyclinder head clean up the brass prong and refit.

I done all of the above stat and viscous check then a new water pump and then temp sender and found it to be coated in crud clean it off and now it works

Dont think theres owt wrong with the temp sender or guage cos you said the heaters dont get hot. The only thing that can cause that is the thermostat locked open/missing and the viscous fan seized to run permanatly
Both are easy to test
To test the viscose get a rolled up newspaper and whilst the engine is running but at a low temp shove the newspaper in the fan
if the fan is working properly when the engine is cool it should stop the fan! If you get confetti its running when it shouldent be
(The electric fan should never be on unless the ac calls for it! which is rare)
as for testing the stat if the fan is working your stat isn't

Many thanks to all who supplied,what a wonderful forum this is,just like the rover 75 forum,those in the know help we learners along. Cant take her off the road until the weekend so ive ordered a new stat ,just in case,new antifreeze and ill do the viscous fan check before doing anything.
Many thanks

rover75lover said:

Many thanks to all who supplied,what a wonderful forum this is,just like the rover 75 forum,those in the know help we learners along. Cant take her off the road until the weekend so ive ordered a new stat ,just in case,new antifreeze and ill do the viscous fan check before doing anything.
Many thanks

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Check the new stat works before you fit it, quite a few new ones have been found to be faulty.

Call me daft but im having a blonde moment
Were is the stat on the diesels?

gfromleeds said:

Call me daft but im having a blonde moment
Were is the stat on the diesels?

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Look from front of car. Follow left hand rad hose it's under the housing that connects to.