96 civic thermost at normal operating Temp however it seems to be low luke warm. Any ideas?

 

a.) What's the ambient temp outside?

b.) Have you opened up the cooling system lately? If so ensure you've bled all the air out. See:

c.) How long has it been since the coolant was changed?

 

It's near 0 here in Illinois. Never really figured I needed to bleed it since i see no fluctuations on the gauges. I bought the car about 7k miles ago so history is rather unknown

 

Yes, you just introduced an air pocket in the system.

 

Before your next trip, when the engine is cold, open up the radiator and check that it is completely full, and add coolant if it is not. The car should not be facing downhill when you do this, park level or uphill so the radiator is the highest point.

 

So I ran the car and it puked coolant all over had a bit of heat, then I realized the resovoir was basically empty so I filled it and still not feeling much heat... Any other ideas?

 

What do you mean "puked" coolant all over? On the inside of the car..like where the pedals are..or all over the engine?
Just do this dude:
-Put the front of your car on a slight incline.
-When engine is COOL...Open and Fill up both the Radiator and Reservoir bottle.
-Start engine with Radiator cap off.
(Note: After a few minutes, coolant will start flow SLOWLY out of the radiator opening...This is NORMAL..do not be concerned!)
- Keep filling radiator with coolant as it "overflows" and goes down(Thermostat opens to allow coolant into engine..which is NORMAL.).
- Air bubbles may come from the radiator opening...that means you had AIR in your system.
- After about 30-40 minutes of bleeding air, and refilling the radiator... Check for MORE bubbles(even micro-bubbles) coming from the radiator opening. This may be an indication of a head gasket issue.

Do these steps or follow the video above..and let us know any updates.
Thank You!