89 740 turbo, noticed lately that there is heat coming from the engine, but temperature never crosses 12:00 on the gauge. replaced water pump about 6 months ago when head warped; no loss of coolant now, hardly any (none? maybe?) oil consumption. recently had oil leak at valve cover, replaced; and it is still leaking a small amount (dime sized spot overnight), nothing too bad. fan clutch appears to do it's job, loudly at times, and the pusher fan comes on intermittently sitting at idle. yet i see heat waves at the edges of the hood sometimes. the heat is hot enough to need to peel the cap gasket when opening it and some of the clearcoat is coming off on the left side of the hood. could my temp gauge be lying to me? it is just measuring coolant temperature, right? is it possible the engine is retaining too much heat?

i'm clueless.

going to do some dye and try to find the source(s?) of the oil leak. any thoughts on the heat situation would be greatly appreciated.

jesse