Temp Gauge..?

I think this is normal, but here goes.

My car takes a while to heat up-only on cold starts like when it's under 35deg and it's been sitting overnight. I'll start her up, idle for like 2 minutes, then drive-after about a good 10 minutes my car reaches NORM on the temp gauge. This only happens when it's cold out. In the summer it goes to NORM after like 2 minutes.

You think my temp gauge with the radiator is shot (staying in the closed of open position..?) or is this normal given the cold weather.

Another thing, where the hell is the IAC valve on my car..? on the 4.6 in my manual it shows it, but it's hard for me to find. I wanna clean that out.

Normal. Takes a lot longer to warm up something from 30* than it does from 80*. On a 5* day I can get heat in about 5 minutes, normal operating temp in about 8 minutes. Mine never actually makes "normal" as I have a 180* tstat.

Thanks alot man.

Its normal like mine takes forever when its cold due to the hood venting out all of the heat, but I can live with that, besides I don't have to use the defroster in the morning because it is covered up every time it is parked for a while