cooling system is being a pain. Info would help please

["cdmcali" <cdmcali@xxxx>]

ok everybody ready here we go. my car overheated a while ago and 
haven't had time to work on it until now. I have drained the system 
and added new coolant and a new otterstat switch thinking that my 
fans were not working( when the car overheated I forgot to check to 
see if the fans were on). I started the car and the temp guage went 
almost up to the 220 mark rapidly and the fans never came on so I 
shut off the car and let it sit. I bypassed the otterstat switch so 
the fans would run continuously and started it up. now the temp guage 
stays right at the second line(the one above 100) but it seems that 
the engine is still getting hotter. I am afraid to find out if is 
getting hotter and the temp guage just isn't working. I am not sure 
if I bleed the system right or if I am sucking in air. I have read 
all the ways to bleed the system but keep getting things confused. I 
am also not sure why my fans aren't coming on when they are supposed 
to. any help with this would be more than helpful. Thank you 
cdmcali (4626)