Oil temp reached 260 during mountain drive
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 547
Likes: 3
From: Silicon Valley California
St. Jude Donor '09-'11
Oil temp reached 260 during mountain drive
Recently driving in the Sierras, I saw elevated temps while travelling generally uphill (quickly, but rarely at RPM much above 3000). It reached 259, then flashed 262 for a fraction of a second before returning to 259 on the DIC. At that time I reached a mostly level area and began running in a high gear to keep RPMs low and in a few minutes temps were back in the 240s.
This seems awfully high considering that I wasn't flogging the car hard like I've done other cars on these same roads, and ambient temps were in the 70-80 zone, altitude no higher than 4500 ft. Coolant temp was stable at approximately the usual temp where the needle points approx straight up, maybe just slightly to the left.
Is this OK? In other words, is this normal behavior?
Also, would the 160 thermostat help in oil temps? How about the Z oil cooler? And with the oil cooler, does it take longer to warm up the engine during cold weather?
This seems awfully high considering that I wasn't flogging the car hard like I've done other cars on these same roads, and ambient temps were in the 70-80 zone, altitude no higher than 4500 ft. Coolant temp was stable at approximately the usual temp where the needle points approx straight up, maybe just slightly to the left.
Is this OK? In other words, is this normal behavior?
Also, would the 160 thermostat help in oil temps? How about the Z oil cooler? And with the oil cooler, does it take longer to warm up the engine during cold weather?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,566
Likes: 2
From: Goleta CA
Cruise-In VIII Veteran
Kinda odd to get that hot like that, but if you were going up a steep mountain road (i.e. sustained high engine load) I don't think it's that odd. Especially is you don't have any oil cooling.
Adding a 160 thermostat may help slightly if it's keeping the water cooler, but it's not really significant. Obviously, an oil cooler would have a significant impact. I assume that you don't have an oil cooler right now. The water will still heat up quickly when cold, but the oil will take longer to heat up, since there is no thermostat in the oil system.
Personally, I wouldn't do anything. I see 260 oil temps every track day. (BTW, I have the cooler that comes with Z51) If it goes higher, I'll back off. But 260 is nothing to worry about. Remember, the CEL won't go off until somewhere around 320. Now that is something to worry about!
Adding a 160 thermostat may help slightly if it's keeping the water cooler, but it's not really significant. Obviously, an oil cooler would have a significant impact. I assume that you don't have an oil cooler right now. The water will still heat up quickly when cold, but the oil will take longer to heat up, since there is no thermostat in the oil system.
Personally, I wouldn't do anything. I see 260 oil temps every track day. (BTW, I have the cooler that comes with Z51) If it goes higher, I'll back off. But 260 is nothing to worry about. Remember, the CEL won't go off until somewhere around 320. Now that is something to worry about!
