I was driving my mom's '97 850 T-5 (120k miles) and I got on boost a tad pulling out of a parking lot (U-turn), a few mins later I glanced at the temp gauge and I saw it was pegged. It was right below where the red area starts. I blasted the heat (turned off recycle!) and it started to come down, but still stayed uncomfortably high on the gauge.

I figured, ok, its overheating and if I keep moving, but keep the revs down that should help it cool better than sitting on the side of the road. I think this turned out to be wrong, I guess because the fans were functional.

Anyway, I got to where I was going, turned key to the run position and let the heat keep running for a bit...checked the temp and once it was down halfway on the gauge or close to it I went about my business.

The car runs fine so I dont think there's any issues of the headgasket blowing/head warping.

Also, during the winter the car was running cool...so I pretty much know for sure the T-stat needs to be replaced. What about the waterpump? What is the change interval for the Timing belt? 60k miles?

Is the waterpump driven by the timing belt?

thanks in advance,
Adrial