Overheating woes

[Hairyman]

I’m going back to basics………is your dash temp needle lying to you?

Yes, that's a valid question.  The fan was on when I was driving on the motorway and the needle was high, and when I turned the heat on I thought I was going to burn my feet, so I think the gauge is telling the truth but I do want to do more checks because the fan wasn't nailed to the higher speed, it was cycling between lower and higher speeds.

I need to do some testing.  I can stick a thermometer probe between the fins on the radiator and see what temperature it actually is before buying any new parts.