[s-cars] Oil Temperature Question-How Hot is too hot

[Taka Mizutani]

Thanks Teddy-
BTDT always is better info than "I heard this" or "I heard that,"
which is often the case with internet forums. :-)

That also gives me more confidence in getting a $1000 part, knowing
that it should work well, as opposed to wondering if it is going to
work.

Taka


On 3/26/09, Theodore Chen <tedebearp at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> 5. Taka, Don't have an undertray anymore, so I can't try to refit. I
> read some Corvette forum posts and some guys who track their cars
> have seen similar temps during a roughly 30 min track session
> (285-300F or 140-150C). There was some chatter that an external
> aftermarket cooler would lower temps by 20 (I presume F instead of C,
> 20F is about 7C). Some posts mentioned that the combo radiator/cooler
> option you mentioned was a good compromise if you drove the car on
> the street (of course there were a few posts that said the combo unit
> didn't work well for them), but that they would only use a separate
> larger unit if it was a track only car. Would you know why that might
> be?
>
>
> oil takes a long time to get up to operating temperature, and if you use an
> external oil cooler, it will slow down the warmup time for the oil.  the
> integrated oil cooler doesn't have that problem, and in fact, the oil gets
> up to operating temperature faster because the coolant warms it.
>
> you can mitigate this with a thermostat for the oil, but that's one more
> component to plumb in.
>
> my mustang has a 3" thick griffin radiator with an integral oil cooler that
> has 12AN ports.  the coolant and oil temperatures stay rock steady at the
> track, which wasn't the case with the stock radiator and no oil cooler.
>
> the integrated oil cooler means you're dumping the heat into the radiator,
> but if you have a big radiator, that can work well and greatly simplifies
> setup.  that's also a little less hardware hanging way out at the front of
> the car.  an external oil cooler is still better, but you have to find a
> place to put it and run all the plumbing.
>
> -teddy
>
>