[jcoogs]

So this summer I was having a leak which turned out to be my Lower Intake Manifold gasket. Also replaced the front head gasket. The thermostat and temperature sensor are new as well and I also took out the old coolant and put in new stuff. There's no more leak now, and the temperature holds steady, but there are two problems:

1. Instead of the temp gauge's normal position being just below the middle mark, it is now consistently at the middle mark.

2. If I'm driving and stop for only a short period of time, such as to get gas or run into a store, when I start driving the car again the gauge starts creeping up towards the three quarter mark. I shut the car off before it gets much higher than that, but I have no idea why it's happening. Could it be that the cooling system needs to be bled? If so, how does one do that exactly? I know where the bleeder screw is, but what is the procedure?