track day problems, 4th to 5th

[Tyler Townsley]

Originally Posted by lbszr

Good to know! I feel better about mine staying at 250 just at the caution start of the caution range before the 260 max limit. That must be the ideal temp for track since that's where they put the oil thermostat? Guess it probably wouldn't be a good idea to take out the thermostat for track use, or secure it open if only running on hot days?

Watch the water temps. Because of the radiator/bypass design it is very easy to overheat and blow a head gasket in a race environment.

Tyler

[zrss]

[quote=Tyler Townsley]Couple of things to remember.
1. The oil cooler has a thermostat that does not open until 230 degrees so unless you reach that temp or have the thermo changed it does not matter what you do to the cooler.

The oil thermostat opens at about 185 degrees. Take a slow (60 - 70 mph) highway drive in 6th gear on a cool night and the oil temp gauge will stay between 182 and 188 the entire time.

[Tyler Townsley]

[quote=zrss]

Originally Posted by Tyler Townsley

Couple of things to remember.
1. The oil cooler has a thermostat that does not open until 230 degrees so unless you reach that temp or have the thermo changed it does not matter what you do to the cooler.

The oil thermostat opens at about 185 degrees. Take a slow (60 - 70 mph) highway drive in 6th gear on a cool night and the oil temp gauge will stay between 182 and 188 the entire time.

Recommend you review the manual. What you are seeing is the effects of the radiator cooling on the oil temps.

Tyler

[4DSZR1]

Let me ask a dumb question.

If the oil cooling thermostat doesn't open until the oil temp reaches 230, doesn't this mean that oil doesn't circulate through the cooler? If this is the case, then I dont think in 4 years I've ever seen anything close to 230 oil temp. How do I drain the old oil thats siting in the oil cooler? In the event that the therostat opens someday, I dont want the old oil possibly contaminating the fresh.

Am I worried about nothing?

Thanks

Rick

[SharkPilot]

I read in the Helm manual that there is a constant minimal flow of oil allowed through the cooler at all tempuratures. The reason given was to prevent a slug of cold oil going into the engine when/if the oil thermostat opens.
Based upon that I would think that the oil cooler always has fresh engine oil inside.
One thing that I have noticed on my car is that even after a slow drive home from work the oil cooler pipes are hot. So there has to be something flowing through there even at lower operating temps.

SharkPilot

[Tyler Townsley]

Correct on the minimal flow. Per an engineer on the project this minimal flow was to warm the engine oil quicker in cold climates. They found in tests done in severe cold the engine oil did not warm to the temps desired so they used used the oil cooler to warm the oil from the radiator temperature.

Tyler

[4DSZR1]

Thanks for the answers...