Motor oil temps

Jtmoney714

Jtmoney714

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For those with a temp gauge on their cars, a few questions. What temps are you seeing? Do you have an oil cooler? Where is your temp sender located? And finally…. How hot is too hot?

 
I run around 230-240. I have a CBR oil cooler with fans. 
My sensor is located where the stock oil sending unit normally goes. 
 

My buddy has exact same oil cooler and has his sensor in the oil pan. He sees around 260-270. 
I have read before that there is a 30 degree difference between the 2 points so this makes sense. 
 

I don’t run a thermostat in my oil cooler line, I know some suggest it. But I also warm up my motor and don’t run hard until my oil temp is above 150. 
 

Anything over 300 or so I would be doing an oil change soon after that temp. 

 
Forgot to add. I installed my sensor before my oil cooler was installed and I was right at 300 when running hard. 
So the cooler absolutely helped a lot. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
lincster said:
I run around 230-240. I have a CBR oil cooler with fans. 
My sensor is located where the stock oil sending unit normally goes. 
 

My buddy has exact same oil cooler and has his sensor in the oil pan. He sees around 260-270. 
I have read before that there is a 30 degree difference between the 2 points so this makes sense. 
 

I don’t run a thermostat in my oil cooler line, I know some suggest it. But I also warm up my motor and don’t run hard until my oil temp is above 150. 
 

Anything over 300 or so I would be doing an oil change soon after that temp. 
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Where is the stock oil sending unit located? I have the Earls one that is in the block near the oil filter. My sending unit for the gauge is on what looks to be the outlet side. My temps I saw were about 275. Never got above that but still seemed high to me. I just have a setrab oil cooler mounted about 6 inches in front of the radiator. I believe it gets decent air flow from the radiator fans. But I’m wondering if I should add a fan to the cooler or if my temps are normal. 

 
On top of the block, behind the intake, flywheel end of the motor.

Nothing wrong with 275 where your sending unit is located.

Best place is the oil pan, where the factory puts there's, but you are in the oil flow stream.

 
I have a racepak dash and a Mefi computer.    The racepak says i'm at 230-235 when running hard.   No oil cooler, 408 LS2 Stroker.   Thought about adding one but after reading this I don't think I need it.

 
rampster said:
I have a racepak dash and a Mefi computer.    The racepak says i'm at 230-235 when running hard.   No oil cooler, 408 LS2 Stroker.   Thought about adding one but after reading this I don't think I need it.
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I'd be real surprised if that was accurate.  

 
My LS1 will get close to 300 when running hard with sensor mounted by filter. I shut it off when it gets there. Usually sits around 250 when cruising after its all warmed up.

 
old school 406 SBC in my car prior, i ran a temp gauge with the sensor being in the oil filter housing measuring the oil as its pump from the engine to the filter then to the cooler, so it was reading pre cooler. my oil temps ran around 230ish just casually cruising. soon as id go WFO (6k-8200rpms) for long stretches the oil temp would climb to around 270-300 where i would back off a little and it would start going back down. i ran the biggest cbr cooler they had at kartek. my new ls im building im not planning on installing an oil cooler initially.. but i may look into it and preplan in case it does end up needing one.

 
There was a good oil temp thread before the crash. Oil temps above 250 with regular oil are not recommended. Optimum is 215 to 225 range. With synthetic you can run higher of course. Before I put the cooler on my car I was getting oil temps up around 275 running hard. Now that I have my cooling system working correctly and a good setrab oil cooler my oil temps typically are in that 210 to 220 range. Lots of good info online that you can research.

20220318_122233.jpg

20220318_122240.jpg

 
onanysunday said:
There was a good oil temp thread before the crash. Oil temps above 250 with regular oil are not recommended. Optimum is 215 to 225 range. With synthetic you can run higher of course. Before I put the cooler on my car I was getting oil temps up around 275 running hard. Now that I have my cooling system working correctly and a good setrab oil cooler my oil temps typically are in that 210 to 220 range. Lots of good info online that you can research.

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Where is your temp sender located?

 
Here is a chart I saved from the past, I'm not very smart on this subject and thought this would be a starting point for conversation good or bad. I'm sure there are a lot of variables to  consider when monitoring the temperature of your oil.

679873378_OilTempchart2015.thumb.png.105187274f261bf3e8264009500d5632.png

 
Copy/paste/minor edit from the other oil thread:

Bearing material is also a major consideration.  High-embedibility OEM bearings designed for longevity when faced with soccer mom abuse don’t tolerate 275-300*F for long. Race bearings on a fully built motor, sure. Even still, 260*F would be my upper limit before an oil cooler becomes a necessity. 

 
Just as I figured the temp difference is large. I think it depends on sender location. Hopefully more people chime in and we can get a consistent database to pull from. Searching other LS specific forums the range is from 180-300. 

 
Cmon there has to be more people out there running temp gauges. We need more info. 

 
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