LS3 track oil temps?

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May 19, 2010 | 09:45 PM

FedAppLawCtr

Thread Starter

Heel & Toe

Joined: Feb 2009

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Ls3

Hva

Last edited by FedAppLawCtr; Sep 12, 2010 at 06:05 PM.

May 20, 2010 | 09:29 AM

Eric D

Tech Contributor

Joined: May 2008

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From: Howell Michigan

St. Jude Donor '09-'10-'11

I like to stay below 260° F.

May 20, 2010 | 09:38 AM

0Cajun @ Edgyvette

Former Vendor

Joined: Mar 2003

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From: Tampa FL

St. Jude Donor '07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12'-'13-'14-'15

Hell I was at 232 the other day just pushing the car a little bit in 77 degree weather. I need to get a 160 thermo on this thing before summer. My forged 402 with a huge cam and heads only went to 236 on 100 degree days while banging gears BUT it had an EWP with 160.

Cajun

May 20, 2010 | 11:04 AM

bps999

Pro

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From: Los Angeles California

lots of threads on this. They run hot, 230 not uncommon in town, 270 or more not uncommon at the track. Owners manual says warning comes on at 320. If you don't want to exceed a certain temp on the track (and don't want to do mods) you can either end sessions early, or continue in 4th gear only, which allows you to still work on the line but also brings temp down.

May 20, 2010 | 03:25 PM

Wicked Weasel

Team Owner

Joined: Jul 2004

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From: NJ

St. Jude Donor '05-'08

Quote:

Originally Posted by bps999

If you are going to do this often then buy the appropriate coolers but an occasional track day with high temps is not going to be an issue.

As stated above you might be able to shift to a higher gear at certain parts of the track which will lower your temps. You might even find out you lap times are quicker in the higher gear (sometimes you think you need to be in a lower gear when you really don't.)

Last edited by Wicked Weasel; May 20, 2010 at 03:29 PM.

May 20, 2010 | 05:55 PM

jmudreamvette

Burning Brakes

Joined: Aug 2007

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From: SPRING HILL FL

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedAppLawCtr

Have an 09 LS3 Z51 (stock other than brakes) and took it to Atlanta this past week.Car has about 1900 miles on it. Using Royal Purple 10/40 and oil temps got high as 270 first session and 283 on last session. This seems a bit high or is it? I never seemed to notice this near as high with the Mobil 1 oil when I ran a Road Atlanta event few months ago.

A few months ago air temps were alot cooler. I ran there last year in Sept. If you a going to run in the summer, get the right coolers. If not just change the oil after each one.

May 22, 2010 | 09:24 AM

QUIKAG

Le Mans Master

Joined: May 2000

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From: Dallas TX

I saw 285F last weekend in my bolt-on LS3 at Motorsport Ranch south of Fort Worth on their 3.1 mile course. This was with ambient temps around 80F. The highest I've seen is 308F at Texas Motor Speedway in August. I was shorting shifting at 6k too. That track gets hot in the summer and the air doesn't move, so track surfaces can get way above 100F.

When I'm around 300F I'm starting to shortshift, but anything under 280ish, I don't even worry about it. I probably need to upgrade my oil cooler at some point.

May 24, 2010 | 02:11 AM

Dirk Miller

Burning Brakes

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 975

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From: Pleasant Hill Ca.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedAppLawCtr

Appropriate cooler(s) as in Z06 oil cooler or what? As for the water temp- never got above 200. Should there be that big a difference in water temp vs. oil temp. E.g., (200 water temp-280 oil temp). The brakes-put some 2-piece dba 5000 with Cobalt XR-2 pads. They work flawlessly under heavy braking. Had some good video, at least I thought I did until I attempt to download and see myself reaching back turning it off thinking I hadn't turned it on yet.

Concern for oil temperatures on the track has been my thing too. My manual F55 '08 did not have any oil cooler when I started tracking 3 years ago. My oil temps rose pretty high at Thunderhill even on cool 68 F. days. I would drive very hard and saw temps up to 315 F.. At first, I did not know if the answer for my was a Dewitts radiator or if I should consider going with a heat exchanger in front of my existing factory radiator. After looking at the size of a Z51 oil cooler and a C6 Z06 cooler, I could see there was an obvious difference. Without going into too many details, I chose to go w/ a ZO6 cooler rather than a improved radiator. The long and the short of it is that I been pleased for the past two years. For example, this past week end I drove Thunderhill with outside ambient temps of around 65 F and my oil did not go over 268. A year ago, the outside temps. were up to 105 when I tracked at Infineon and even then the temps of my oil only got to 288. For me, this set up has been successful.