Engine Temperature
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,711
Likes: 90
From: Hillsdale NJ
Engine Temperature
With all the focus on the A8 transmission temps on the track, in monitoring all the temps and looking at the recordings I see the oil temp getting up to 270 to 280 degrees. The is with 81 degree outside temps.
Does anyone have a feel for what is considered a real danger area? I know that the gauge has over 300 marked as red, but that doesn't mean its OK to be at 300.
Does anyone have a feel for what is considered a real danger area? I know that the gauge has over 300 marked as red, but that doesn't mean its OK to be at 300.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 981
Likes: 157
I'd be concerned if oil temperature gets more than a few degrees higher than the coolant. Oil is used to cool parts of the engine like the bearings and the undersides of pistons. It can't do this properly if it's too hot. Higher temperatures also accelerate oil oxidation and the loss of additives.
Using premium oils helps, but you need to change them more often to keep them working properly at higher temperatures.
Using premium oils helps, but you need to change them more often to keep them working properly at higher temperatures.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,711
Likes: 90
From: Hillsdale NJ
I'd be concerned if oil temperature gets more than a few degrees higher than the coolant. Oil is used to cool parts of the engine like the bearings and the undersides of pistons. It can't do this properly if it's too hot. Higher temperatures also accelerate oil oxidation and the loss of additives.
Using premium oils helps, but you need to change them more often to keep them working properly at higher temperatures.
Using premium oils helps, but you need to change them more often to keep them working properly at higher temperatures.
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,326
Likes: 47
From: Tullahoma, TN
Coolant and oil have different heat transfer properties; oil is slower obviously but it has the harder work to do. Coolant is just there to help the oil out by removing excess heat but it does have to get enough air to dump it. Radiator coils do this as well as bodywork design. This is oversimplification but you get the idea. Seems to me the Corvette is a little lacking judging from the overheating complaints. Tadge has some expensive re-work to do! A better radiator could help but apparently (from other threads) it isn't enough.
a
a
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 16,897
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From: Lewisville TX
St. Jude Donor '03-'04-'05-'06-'07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13
Radiator is not going to be the only solution for the cooling on these cars.
With that being said you need to make sure you are running the proper oil for track use. Do not use 5w30 if you are going to be tracking the car, the temps these cars see is far to high for that oil to hold up under those temps.
A good 40w or 50w race quality oil can take 270-280-290 oil temps for short periods of time...but you will need to change the oil after the weekend.
The way the oil cooler is setup on these cars it uses the water from the engine block to cool the oil in the heat exchanger mounted on the side of the oil pan (at least on the Z51/Z06 cars). So the oil temps will always be at or above water temps once the car has reached operating temps. It is not un-common for them to be 20-30 degrees higher than the water at that point.
FYI, on the race cars we like to see water temps 190-225 and oil temps 240-265 on the endurance cars. Water temps can spike to 230-240 on the sprint setups or qualifying runs.
With that being said you need to make sure you are running the proper oil for track use. Do not use 5w30 if you are going to be tracking the car, the temps these cars see is far to high for that oil to hold up under those temps.
A good 40w or 50w race quality oil can take 270-280-290 oil temps for short periods of time...but you will need to change the oil after the weekend.
The way the oil cooler is setup on these cars it uses the water from the engine block to cool the oil in the heat exchanger mounted on the side of the oil pan (at least on the Z51/Z06 cars). So the oil temps will always be at or above water temps once the car has reached operating temps. It is not un-common for them to be 20-30 degrees higher than the water at that point.
FYI, on the race cars we like to see water temps 190-225 and oil temps 240-265 on the endurance cars. Water temps can spike to 230-240 on the sprint setups or qualifying runs.
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E-Ray, 3LZ, ZER, LIFT
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: NE South Carolina
Radiator is not going to be the only solution for the cooling on these cars.
With that being said you need to make sure you are running the proper oil for track use. Do not use 5w30 if you are going to be tracking the car, the temps these cars see is far to high for that oil to hold up under those temps.
A good 40w or 50w race quality oil can take 270-280-290 oil temps for short periods of time...but you will need to change the oil after the weekend.
The way the oil cooler is setup on these cars it uses the water from the engine block to cool the oil in the heat exchanger mounted on the side of the oil pan (at least on the Z51/Z06 cars). So the oil temps will always be at or above water temps once the car has reached operating temps. It is not un-common for them to be 20-30 degrees higher than the water at that point.
FYI, on the race cars we like to see water temps 190-225 and oil temps 240-265 on the endurance cars. Water temps can spike to 230-240 on the sprint setups or qualifying runs.
With that being said you need to make sure you are running the proper oil for track use. Do not use 5w30 if you are going to be tracking the car, the temps these cars see is far to high for that oil to hold up under those temps.
A good 40w or 50w race quality oil can take 270-280-290 oil temps for short periods of time...but you will need to change the oil after the weekend.
The way the oil cooler is setup on these cars it uses the water from the engine block to cool the oil in the heat exchanger mounted on the side of the oil pan (at least on the Z51/Z06 cars). So the oil temps will always be at or above water temps once the car has reached operating temps. It is not un-common for them to be 20-30 degrees higher than the water at that point.
FYI, on the race cars we like to see water temps 190-225 and oil temps 240-265 on the endurance cars. Water temps can spike to 230-240 on the sprint setups or qualifying runs.
Thanks. Great quantitative info. As you said if you're cooling the oil using a heat exchanger with engine water can't expect much lower. Still it's much lower than my old modified Corvair! In fact until I found Mobil 1 in ~1974 the best oils I used would form a scum in the filler tube. Had an aluminum pan with a fined bottom and cone shaped spikes that when up about 2 inches into the oil wherever they could fit. Not much help. The oil temp gauge I installed was usually reading close to 300 F (as I recall) when thrashing! I found out about Mobile 1 for an interesting reason, to replace the damper oil in the two Hitachi SU's on my 260Z! It was recommended by the Datsun district manager and solved that response problem as well.
Last edited by JerryU; Jun 15, 2015 at 02:34 PM.