the fans are designed to cycle not run constantly...they turn off above 35 mph because of the wind sheer at that speed.. although with the ac on they will cycle above 35 mph when the AC head pressure is increased due to heat...

 

Mine runs around 203 to 205 year-round here in Memphis. I would be a little concerned with the temp as low as you indicate.

Get her check !

 

Do you really think that me being 10* cooler than you is going to make any difference.......


DH

 

You need to get up over 200 F. you can not run for long periods of time below this number.. it will cost you.

 

Ok,Ok, OKAY !!!!!!

I know you don't want me to ruin my engine

Just humor me so I have this straight.......

When you say I need to get up over 200 and not below for long periods...you mean.... running most of the day in the mid 190's and a few minutes over 200 will not suffice. Even if 2 days a week the car is driven hard and gets over 200. AND the car sees a track day once evvery 5-6 weeks where it really gets HOT. ???????????

Don't me too hard .... its in my genes


DH

 

To prevent moisture condensation accumulation in aluminum aircraft engines, the oil must reach 180 for at least 45 minutes.

 

Well I am dong that !!!!! ..... but not every time I drive it.....some days the car is driven less than 45 minutes !!!!!!

This is what I was refering to.....lets say one day I drive 2 hours where 1.5 hours is over 190. The next day is 1 hour with only 30 minutes over 190. Then the next day I drive 1 hour and 30 minutes is over 210

........ can we average this out over a week or a month....get my question.

Then again, ET has an integral knowledge of these motors and although both are aluminum the Vette engine may have very different requirments or reasons unknow to me.


DH

 

For what my opinion is worth, (probably not much), I think you're doing just fine in your normal routine. The type car that is most likely to have moisture problems is the 5 minute drive to the store for beer, and back home again, then put away until the next sunny weekend. If you are driving your's daily, I doubt very much if you will have condensation problems. Because you are driving, you are accumulating time, temperature, RPM, and mileage data in the oil monitoring system, it will tell you when to change the oil, and that in itself should keep your oil changes timely, and get rid of any contaminants suspended in the oil. I'm not really sure that came out right, but I think you catch my drift on the good maintenance practice idea.

 

I think you might be worrying about a non-issue. Pull your dipstick on a warm engine and look for water droplets or foaming in the oil. I've seen it before on an aircraft engine dipstick and it really stands out... no way to not see it, if its there. If there's water in the crank case, it will also usually condensate at the top of the dip stick just below the tube/stick seal on a cold engine. There should be NONE. Now, pull the oil filler on the valve cover. Do you see any coking, water or foaming on the underside of the filler cap? Probably not. These issues have already been very well addressed by GM when they designed the crank case ventilation system. I think its a good idea to run an engine for at least half an hour after washing it, but I wont go for a drive just to take that precaution if I'm plan to drive the car that long in the next few days. In general, I wont wash the engine unless its a warm/hot day. Oil clings to reciprocating parts and does a good job in the short term of protecting parts from corrosion.

Its a good question, and I had the same concerns as you with the aluminum block when I first got my vette. I've never seen any traces of water in the crank case under the worst of conditions, nor have I ever read it to be an issue with LSx engines. The largest detriment to an engine that isn't ran long enough to warm up (besides the cold start from a lack of initial oil pressure) is condensation in the exhaust, which tends to rot them out on some cars. Also, increased carbon buildup can be a concern. Both of these would be typical of folks that run their cars repeatedly for less than 5 minutes.

Its sort of common sense if you want to get max miles out of your engine. When you start it, don't throw it in gear till the oil pressure is all the way up for at least a few seconds. I let mine idle for 10 seconds or so. Baby it until its all the way up to operating temperature.

Again, the rule for oil in open ventilated aluminum aircraft engines is 180 degrees for 45 minutes. Your cars engine is not ventilated directly to the atmosphere, thus it has limited opportunities to introduce ambient outside air into the crank after you shut down the engine. Its a non-issue.

Hope that helps. Relax, drive and enjoy...

 

I am done with this thread, another idiot equating an airplane to an ls1...
if you know physics, water will evaporate at any temperature above the dew point,the hotter the faster as I have said hundreds of thousands of times these idiots who come here saying you need 150 200 212 to evaporate water from oil, should get their head out of their ***.... if we had to wait for a 150 degree day to evaporate rain, this would be a pretty wet planet.
Too much bullsh|t in this thread...
and Howie, I said running this motor below 200 will cost you, you need 90% of your engine time above 200, dont worry about the track many guys see 250 260F with no problems.. Ls1's were run at these temps for hours in testing.Anyway if you need help I talk to you in private if you want... some of these people are just plain idiots..
Put the freekin 190 in it and let your new radiator keep you cool.
The End

 

Thanks everyone for your opinions ........


DH

 

I had a 172 stat fail and the check engine light came on and stayed on. Interestingly, I was running 195 to 200 with the factory original. The 172 brought me down to 185 to 195. Quality Chevrolet gave me 10 good reasons to use GM's stat and what is interesting is that I'm running a bit cooler than the factory original. I run 188 to 192 which I am more than please with. After market stats can fail. I won't go there again.

VETFVER

 

ET, what should those of us who have cold winters do? Any special precautions? My oil temp hasn't been over 190 in three months.
And how accurate are the oil temp gages? If my car has been sitting for days, my initial oil temp is typically about 15 degrees colder than coolant temp at startup.

 

Thats a good point ..... have to assume coolant and oil temps are accurate. But I have never looked at the temps on a cold start to see if they are the same.


DH

 

Howie,
A few things to consider which I didn't see mentioned on this thread.

Do you know what your oil temp really is??? I ask this because with a cooler, such as you now have, the tap to route oil to the cooler normally comes from the oil temp sensing port right over the filter. The oil temp probe still has to connect to this new tap, but it can be plumbed to tap into the flow going to the cooler (hot), or to tap into the flow coming back from the cooler (much cooler). I suspect that yours is ported to sense outgoing (hot) oil temp, but before you start discussing (or worrying about) oil temps you should contact DRM and see if you are sensing hot or cold oil temp.

Another issue I saw mentioned is flow. I don't think adding a cooler impacts flow as the oil pump in the LS1/6 is a positive displacement pump so flow is directly proportional to engine rpm and not much else (unless the oil pump relief spring is lifting to limit oil pressure thus routing some oil back to the pan).

With regards to the proper viscosity at the track, you won't really know until you take it to the track. Even with an external cooler (not integrated like yours), I still see oil temps in the range of 230-270 depending a lot on external temps. My last race at Roebling Road in ambient temps of about 80F I saw oil temps (hot) of about 254 while running AMSOIL High Performance 10w40.

 

Brad

Thanks for chimming in.

My set up is the new EOC internal to the Dewitts radiator. His adapter block has has the sensor tapped into the HOT, just as it leaves the engine block. I drove hard for few minutes today and could only get to 207 oil temp. Ambient was 68. Obviously the test will be at the track. Going to high speed WSIR in 10 days. Then a slower (Streets of Willow) more techinical higher RPM 4weeks later.

Depending on actual oil temps and pressure. I may change to a heavier oil. 0-40/ 5-40 or 10-40. Right now my hot pressure is 40-46 and at idle it drops to 28-30.


DH

 

We'll see if those hold up at the track. I'm betting that even with a cooler you're probably going to want to go to a higher viscosity oil in Socal.

Good to know that you're accurately seeing hot oil temps.

 

well vettes do "fly"

 

I'm hopefully (depending on rain) going to the track next week.

What oil pressure is considered too low ????

DH

 

5 psi per 1000 rpm is engineering min.
most like to see 10 per