I did a flush of coolant system over the weekend but for some reason I find the temperature of the firewall much higher now. But the temp gauge on the dash is right below the middle of the gauge (identical temp before the flush).

Does the temp gauge depict the temp of the coolant or the engine and what is the normal operating temp on the firewall side (need to put a thermometer to get the temp)? One thingy though, the hose feeding back coolant to the block is less hotter that the feeding into the radiator (some good news).