Water pump or thermostat?

[stocked]

The Radiator cap is luke warm and the top rad hose has pressure and is hot but not to hot to touch. the sides of the rad feel as hot as the top hose but the temp gauge is on the bar (digital) above the 200 mark. and for a second was 2 bars above 200, which i would guess to be around 230.. but who knows. I have good heat still and if i idle the van the temp goes down to the normal 200 mark it ran at before today . I'm also having a random "misfire" type of thing so i wonder if the timing is a little off, couldn't this cause it to overheat slightly?

[astro355]

Hello,

the stock temperature gauge in these vans aren't the most accurate things in the world. If the temp cycles (goes up and down) and you are getting good heat in the cab, I'm not sure there is too much to worry about.

Sure, if the timing is not right, the engine can run hotter than normal but that's not something that happens by itself. Did you "adjust" the timing yourself? That random misfire can be caused by a lot of different things. Where was the last time a tune-up was done?