What would be the first common signs of a incorrectly installed thermostat on a 1991 jeep cherokee inline 6?

i just changed my thermostat on my 91 jeep cherokee inline 6 about 1 week ago. and ive noticed my car has run at around 150 -180degrees which is kind of colder than usual. around 1/4th the way up on my gauge sometimes... is this ok? or could the tstat been installed wrong?
What would be the first common signs of a incorrectly installed thermostat on a 1991 jeep cherokee inline 6?
the thermostat opens as its heated by the coolant. thus allowing hot coolant to pass back to the radiator to be cooled off. and once the engine has filled with colder coolant, the thermostat will cool off as well and close again. until the coolant in the motor gets too hot again and the thermostat opens again, etc, ect...



the way you can tell your theremostat is working is the engine will get hotter and hotter, and then will go down again a little, each time the thermostat is heated to the point that it opens up and allows the hot coolant to escape. just watch the guage carefully and if you can see the needle moving back and forth and the engine getting cooler, hotter, cooler, hotter, you'll see you have a working cooling system



the temp difference is normal and very likely you have a lower temp thermostat. lower temp thermostats open up at lower temperatures. for some people it's a personal preference what temp they want their vehicle to run at.



but it's also very common here in canada to put a low-temp thermostat in during winter. because it doesn't take as long to heat the fluid to 160 instead of 180, allowing hot coolant from the engine to get to the heater core much faster and warm the inside of the car.
What would be the first common signs of a incorrectly installed thermostat on a 1991 jeep cherokee inline 6?
Overheating or not getting warm at all, it depends.

It's possible that you vehicle was just running warmer than normal before too. Maybe with aa new thermostat it's running where it should,check owners manual.
If it were installed incorrectly it would over heat.

If it's running too cool you may have an incorrect one that's opening too soon
Maybe you put too cool of a stat in. Recheck what was supposed to be installed.



Could be normal tho, so keep an eye on your MPG.
sounds like you installed a lower temp thermostat then was in it cause if you have run it for a week and it hasn't over heated or leaked it is probably installed correctly