blakngold4life

I just got back from my first HPDE, yes I caught the bug... I drive an auto due to having a bad left knee, when the car is in OD the temps stay fine, but I dont have control of the shifting as much. I like the way the car handles better in D, however, my oil temps skyrocket to above 280, which I'm not comfortable with. Does anyone else have experience with this? Also, since I plan on doing more with this car should I look into getting a trans oil temp gauge?

AU N EGL

First I would get an air hose and clean your radiator(s) out as best as possible.

Oil and trans coolers should be ppls number mod to do.

or a bigger trans cooler for an automatic.

replace the trans and diff fluids with good synthetic. That keeps those temps down a bit.

SouthernSon

Before adding coolers to my '03 Z06, I experienced oil over 300 degrees and my tranny temp warning flashed on the dash. This was at Putnam Park with 85 degree ambient temperature day. Now, with Ron Davis radiator, coolers for engine oil and tranny fluid, I still get oil around 290 (on very hot days) but tranny does not set warning. If you drive it, it will get hot. As the man said, it is not so much the temp of the oil but rather how hot the rest of the engine parts are when oil is close to 300. Some parts of the engine are WAY above that. Add your coolers, change your fluids and just take what the car will give you because it ain't gonna last forever anyway.

D C

I replaced the radiator replaced with a Dewitts radiator that has the tranny and oil cooler and that seemed to keeps temps at bay.
I still yet have to take it to another HPDE to see, but I think it will hold up.

Aardwolf

I've had a difficult time keeping the trans temps low. More than likely your trans will fail right away without knowing its temp and having a cooler. Search through my threads I've made several documenting each level of trans cooling. I have a bad back so I stick with an auto too. My latest round of cooling will be tested at the end of the month. My oil temps are so low that I may use both of these coolers for the trans. Right now the trans cooler is on the passenger side and oil cooler on the drivers side.

c4cruiser

Change to a full synthetic oil for the engine. A full synthetic will easily handle oil temps in that range. Because the RPM's are higher in D compared to being in OD, you will see higher temps.

A number of years ago, I attended a seminar where Dave McLlellan talked about the LT1 engine design and he said that the old L98 "oil cooler" was dropped from consideration as a feature on the LT1 because they intended to use Mobil-1 full synthetic in the new motor. That also saved the cost of the various parts of the old system and a weight savings.

During the seminar, I asked him about high oil temps and what was considered reasonable for the LT1. He said that oil temps in the 300 degrees range with a full-synthetic were fine and that race cars with large oil coolers saw temps above that with using the same synthetics.

Keeping the radiator and A/C condensor clean is a good suggestion. To a degree, the lower the coolant temps, the lower the oil temps. Of course ambient air temps plays a role in fluid temps so that's why it's important to get as much airflow as you can through radiators.

It would be a good idea to add a trans cooler and a temp gauge. In a stock setup, the trans fluid just goes into the radiator for cooling so adding a cooler will be a big help. Do a full trans fluid flush and a new filter.

SouthernSon

As stated earlier, it is not so much the tolerance of oil at high temps as the concern for engine parts that are much higher in temps. Oil helps to cool parts as well as lubricate.