Possible sticking thermostat?

Took the old girl out the garage for the first time this year and now hav a new problem.

Both the oil and water temp are high. Oil is sitting over 100 when i would expect it to read about 70 -80 and the water needle is hovering around the warning light (which dont work!). The needle  is moving no further than clearing the light on either side. I have hot air blowing in the car and the car was driving fine.

My radiator has now cracked at the top hose while i was squashing pipes to check for wat / air. i think this is  more a result of than a cause.

What would happen if the thermostat was stuck shut?

hi

hows it going?
yip  sounds like your thermostat is stuck shut  , I would be checking it first .Put it in a pan of hot water should start opening at 87deg i think , the opening temp will be stamped on the thermostat .Make sure if it does open its at the correct temperature

cheers
baz

the pan trick is ok but i will not back money on a old thermostat being quite as good in the car as in pan various different reasons, if you have a bad feeling about it just change it there inexpensive and you know it gets rid of any intermintent problem you got with an old one

Oil temp over 100 is fine, not too hot. 70-80 is too low for oil temp once its at normal running temp, 80-90 is about right but it will go up in traffic, etc. The coolant temp also sounds fine too.

If the thermostat was stuck shut the coolant pipes top and bottom of radiator wouldn't be hot to the touch.

hi

another tip is the bottom hose on the radiator should start getting Hot just before the temp gauge reaches the half way mark.

baz

thanks for the help, new thermostat now fitted and working fine. I did try testing in water to feed my own curiosity tho. I also found the reason the oil was so high was due to corosion building up on the contacts, was either on temp sensor or the earth star inside the car, i cleaned them both in the same go so not sure which was the cause? o and fuse 8 was dodgy & 20 had blown.

Think i need to give the electrics a good overhall! those gremlins seemed to have multiplied this year