One you don't hear too often

Just did a major overhaul of the cooling system on my 90 XJ. I left it as a closed system because I was not having any serious problems. I replaced the water pump with a flowkooler and a new therm housing and 195 thermostat. Also put all new hoses. Now here is what I am noticing. According to the temp gauge I am running much cooler. My guage starts at 100 and the half line is 210. Before the change the gauge was reading right around the 210 mark while getting warmer while low idle. Now with the changes it is reading just below the quarter line which does not have a reading but halfway between 100 and 210 would be say 155 or so. The heater is heating and the idle seems to be working fine but I have not read of anyone having low heating problems. I know everything is geared for around 210 operating temp and I wanted to keep it there. Any suggestions or any dangers in leaving it this way?

The one thing that will affect engine temp is the t-stat. It sounds like your t-stat is slightly open. A 195 T-stat is to hold the temp at 195 +/- 10degrees. If your heater is putting out good heat, then I would say that your temp sending unit at the back of the head, d/side is faulty or has a bad connection. I too had the closed system and converted to the open, I run at 190-210 all day long, no matter the outside temp.