A short while ago the lower radiator hose blew off my Cherokee and she died on me on the side of the road, coolant sprayed every which way and definitely smoking hot but an easy enough fix.

Fast forward a few weeks and with the temperature rising so is my temp gauge, hitting about 210/220 whereas it originally ran closer to 190. Then one day the temp gauge pins itself to 260 as I'm rounding a corner for no apparent reason. I pull over and cut the engine, then turn it back over, and the gauge is back to 210. Then it happens again about three miles later. After looking around I spy my waterpump weeping fluid and so I replace it.
Taking it for a drive afterwards the gauge reads fine around 210 but I suddenly get a metal grinding noise any time I'm on the gas and the car stalls out as I come to a stop. Temp gauge looks fine, no coolant leaking, but the engine is definitely hot with white smoke coming off it.

The next day I replace my thermostat and engine coolant temperature sensor, the cylinder head looks dry as a bone when I remove the old thermostat so I figure maybe it was stuck closed. Fire it up and the same thing happens. I can feel hot coolant running to the thermostat housing but nothing running to or from my heater core and the temp gauge still reads fine. Any one have input on this? I've looked all around through a million different overheating threads but I've never come across an issue like mine.

 

Engine may be consuming coolant through a blown head gasket. This will also cause all the overheating issues.

The temperature sensor depends on liquid flowing past it to take a reading. Since the head was dry, it was only hot air in there. Until the air got really hot, which pegged the gauge.