anyone pay attention to oil temp?

Reference at highway speed and about 60 degrees outside temp.

I was surprised to see 217-219 degrees oil temp. I checked oil level and found it to be about one half quart low at 800 miles. After topping off the oil level I still got about 210 degrees.

With an oil cooler, I expected a lower oil temp. My '93 LT1 runs about 200 degrees in a similar situation (without a cooler) and my M3 runs below 200 degrees (with a cooler but with an analog gage) so who knows?

Any opinions? What are you Z51 6 speed owners seeing?

 

That be right...hammer engine more and you can see slightly higher...your within spec
Michael

 

About 212-217 normally. Have seen it go to 241.

 

You want you oil temp to get close to 212 degrees F to insure you boil off any water condenced in the oil from blow by (combustion produces water vapor). Mobil 1 will tollerate the temperatures you site with ease

 

Unless your oil temp gets above 400F, that's right 400F, Mobil1 will still perform to specs.

If it does ever get to 400F, the oil temp will be the least of your worries.

 

AU N EGL here. I have down well over 50 high performance drives events and the magic oil temp number is 260 degrees.

The oil can take those temps above 300 degrees but the internal engine componants can not. if your oil goes above 260 it is time to slow down and let everything cool down. Do short shifts or what ever it takes to get that oil temp down below 260 degrees.

many of us that routenly take our cars for High Performance Driving events have put in oil coolers so we never see oil temps above 255 degrees for 20 to 30 minute sessions, 4 times a day.

When you see elevated oil temps, as in Driving events, the % oil life in the DIC goes down real fast. I will do an oil change and reset the DIC to 100%. Two weekends of Driving events and about 500 miles and the DIC Oil life is down to 38-40%. I have done an oil analysis as well and it says I could go futher. However, I have done three weekends with out changing oil and the DIC went down to 12%. I change my oil every two events, about 500 miles. This is 500 miles of hard driving with elevated oil temps of 250-255 degrees.

I use Mobil 1 15-W50, which is for high temp use. Besides the oil cooler I also have a 3 qt accu-sump and a trasmission cooler.

So just beceause the oil bottle says it is good for 400 degrees, dont you believe it. Changing oil is much cheaper then changing motors.

 

Like I said -- Mobil performs to specs well above 400F degrees.

Also like I said, if it ever gets to 400F degrees, the oil perforemance is the least of your worries.

Glad we agree that the worries start at around 260F degrees.

Do we also agree that 217-219F degrees, which is what the original poster was worrying about, is not that unusual, and nothing to worry about?

Good, then we agree again.

 

 

I understannd your concern. I had a 2003 Z06 and traded for a C6 Z51 package. On days like you site my Z06 ran 190 to 200 oil temps. My C6 runs 210 to 215 with the extra oil cooler? Seems odd.

I run Red Line oil versus Mobile 1 any opinions?

 

The extra coolers are not supposed to lower your oil temperatures. The engine has been designed to run optimally at some oil temp, whatever that may be. The coolers are there for situations where the car is driven hard and without the coolers the oil cannot be cooled enough to prevent rising temps. The coolers are providing more cooling capacity, and the car can be driven harder while remaining in the proper temp range. Did I use the word cooler enough?

 

 

In the heat of Texas summers on a high speed track (TWS) I tried a little experiment over the course of a year. The results are interesting, and nothing else on the car was changed* for the duration of the experiment and the car does have both on oil cooler and transmission cooler. Temperature in the shade was between 95dF and 103dF.

0W30 Oil stabilizes at 268dF, 10W40 stabilizes at 260dF, and 15W15 stabilizes at 285dF.

The 0W30 was M1, and RedLine; the 10W40 was M1, RedLine, and AmsOil; the 15W15 was M1, and AmsOil.

The first surprise was that 10W40 ran cooler than 15W50 and also ran cooler than 0W30. I have no particular explanation as to why.

The second surprise was that all of the oils in a particular catagory (say 10W40) were undifferentiated with respect to the stabilized temperature on the race track.

I happen to change my oil after each track weekend.
[*] Brake pads were changed from worn to new several times but the same pad material was used each time. Tires were changes twice using the same brand, type, and sizes.

 

I think the oil capacity is different 6 quarts in C5 Z06 and 5 quarts in C6 Z51. Less oil more heat?

 

C5s very. mine is 6 1/2 quarts. plus 1 qt extra for the oil cooler and lines, plus 3 qts for the accu-sump = 10 1/2 quarts. 15-W50 Mobil 1 and change every two weekends on the track or about 500 miles. DIC is reset at each change and is about 44-42% after two weekends.

and yes less oil more heat. with 10 1/2 qts, and the oil cooler, never see oil temps above 255* even on the hottest days at the track and extreamly hard runs.