The problem has been located! Thanks to Cletis! I bought a thermal gun and lo and behold the temp sender is the culprit! I ran the engine to operatiing temp on the gauge and it registered on the therm as 140. The gauge started pegging and the temp had not even gotten to 180 yet. All this chasing things around an it was the simplest thing! I put that sender in the motor when I first built it relying on the parts man's expertise on sending units for older trucks. I should have know better. Thanks again Cletis!