Just as an update I would like to comment that this cheapo guage has worked perfectly so far. I have been driving this truck as a daily driver ever since and the gauge has worked perfectly. I simply drive around and keep an eye on the temp until it gets to 210 at the most and then I hit my fan switch.
Good tip: MOUNT THE GAUGE AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAUGE CLUSTER RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE. You REALLY want the gauge in plain sight so that you can keep en eye on it at all times. Engine coolant temp is the most important reading you want to watch. If your engine gets too hot you risk blowing a head gasket or ruining your piston rings. At the least you will fatigue your piston rings decreasing their lifetime so make sure you don't run your engine too hot!
Funny story about running hot here. One time I got caught by surprise by the biggest sand bowl in the Pismo Dunes area. I came up and over the edge of the bowl and realized I had to make a quick dash to get up over the other side because there was no way to get pulled out by anyone else except a wrecker with a long long tow cable! I did have my fan on since there is no way you can drive a truck in the sand without the fan on. The slow speeds in the sand while at full throttle just blow any radiator cap out there. So I floored it up the other side but I didn't have enough speed yet. So I wanted to back up and aim for the side of the bowl which was shorter than what was directly ahead of me. I wish I had video because it was loud and scary! My girlfriend knew we were in trouble so she just bit her lip while I floored the engine forward and then in reverse a couple of times to get aimed towards the short side. I slammed the throttle down and just hit over 6K rpm all the way up and basically were crawling up the side throwing roost. I made it out very slowly but my engine temp was over 235!! This was because my engine was already hot when I entered the bowl and all that monkey business at low speed with near full throttle really pushed the temp up a lot. I just cruised slowly in a straight line at 3,000 rpm making sure air was going through the radiator with the least amount of throttle I could manage. This cooled the engine down as quickly as possible and everything has been great since.
I read in a tech manual for an engine once that 2500 rpm was a general RPM that engines are designed to reach the optimum water pump speed to circulate water efficiently. That's like my rule of thumb now whenever I experience overheating. Sitting at idle won't cool an engine as fast as driving slowly. You have to have air going through that radiator and the water pump spinning.
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