I installed a cobra intake on my car and now i run a whole notch hotter??? Its really bugging me. Im going to post a picture up the red section is where it runs now, and the blue line is that max it would run before with the other intake.
damn somethings wrong with mine then cause i run that hot on a good day, although im getting a new fan shroud so that should help since i dont have one...
I have found through experience that the factory gauge is not very accurate. A number of things could cause it to read a little higher than normal.
Since you said you just changed the intake, did you put in a new thermostat?
Did you just swap over the coolant temperature sensor from one intake to the other and not get a new one? Did you clean the contacts for the sensor?
I would try to get a hold of a good gauge like Autometer and see what the actual temp is. This is the only real way to tell what your temp is running at.
I'm with sleeper - you don't really know what temp it's running at until/unless you get an accurate aftermarket gauge in there. I'd do that before I tried to troubleshoot any further.
I also agree an aftermarket gauge is a good investment. I will have one in the near future. From the looks of your picture, I'm assuming your running a 180 stat? Is the coolant system full, no air present. Does it run at different temps while idling as apposed to highway driving? I recently replaced my waterpump and after this I ran hot real hot. It turned out to be bad ground in the start cable, which was messing with the temp sending unit. Some this to consider.