Are my oil temps too low?

[hemioiler]

I just watched this video:

Basically he says one of the challenges of a hybrid engine is that temps don't get hot enough to burn off any water that might be accumulating in the oil.

In my daily drives, I frequently "get up to temp" but for my truck the coolant hits 85C and the oil hits about 90 to 93. When I'm towing, I'll sit around 100 to 105, sometimes hitting 110 peak up a hill in the summer, but usually hanging out around 105.

But 95% of my driving I probably only hit 90-ish.

This is lower than stock as I've swapped in a cooler thermostat to keep the temps lower while cooling.

Am I actually hurting things with this thermostat? On stock I'd regularly hit 105C empty and 115 to 120 towing up a grade.

 

[BrendanC]

I just watched this video:




Basically he says one of the challenges of a hybrid engine is that temps don't get hot enough to burn off any water that might be accumulating in the oil.

In my daily drives, I frequently "get up to temp" but for my truck the coolant hits 85C and the oil hits about 90 to 93. When I'm towing, I'll sit around 100 to 105, sometimes hitting 110 peak up a hill in the summer, but usually hanging out around 105.

But 95% of my driving I probably only hit 90-ish.

This is lower than stock as I've swapped in a cooler thermostat to keep the temps lower while cooling.

Am I actually hurting things with this thermostat? On stock I'd regularly hit 105C empty and 115 to 120 towing up a grade.

go back to an OE temp thermostat. you aren’t doing anything beneficial with a cooler thermostat.

 

[twX]

An oil temperature of 90°C is just fine. Water doesn't need to hit its boiling point in order to evaporate. Also keep in mind that 90°C in the sump or main gallery will translate to >100°C in the bearings and >150°C at the pistons.

Water accumulation is mainly an issue when a car is exclusively short tripped for weeks on end, with the oil temperature never exceeding 50-60°C. Once the oil temperature gets to even 80°C, any water in the oil will be boiling off very quickly.

 

[4WD]

go back to an OE temp thermostat. you aren’t doing anything beneficial with a cooler thermostat.

Do we need a thermostat anywhere but coolant in the south?
Gutted the transmission bypass bcs they can stick and cause overheating … My warm up system is a 45 mph road with almost no traffic

 

[hemioiler]

go back to an OE temp thermostat. you aren’t doing anything beneficial with a cooler thermostat.

Towing at 250F is not good for the engine long term.

 

[hemioiler]

An oil temperature of 90°C is just fine. Water doesn't need to hit its boiling point in order to evaporate. Also keep in mind that 90°C in the sump or main gallery will translate to >100°C in the bearings and >150°C at the pistons.

Water accumulation is mainly an issue when a car is exclusively short tripped for weeks on end, with the oil temperature never exceeding 50-60°C. Once the oil temperature gets to even 80°C, any water in the oil will be boiling off very quickly.

Is this something that blackstone can check for? I know BL is not that highly regarded here on bitog but I can't remember which one of their tests is the reason for this. I do have a report from them last winter somewhere which they ran for me after I had installed the lower thermostat.

 

[KrisZ]

You’re fine. Not sure why people want 100C temps.
Water starts to evaporate at 0C, but many talk about “burning off” water as if it was a binary phenomenon and if you don’t hit that magical 100c oil temps, your not burning off the water.

Also, water is emulsified in the oil, that’s done by design so that the oil doesn’t lose its lubricating properties, so this “burning off moisture” doesn’t really happen the way people imagine.

It’s very slow and if you have a lot of moisture to the point of milky looking oil, good luck “burning it off”. You need to change the oil at that point. If, on the other hand, the oil looks normal, there is no need to burn anything off.

In short, don’t worry about it.

 

[BrendanC]

Towing at 250F is not good for the engine long term.

sounds like you need a larger vehicle. modern EFI vehicles need to get warm to meet peak efficiency. is 250°F your coolant or oil temp? my silverado doesn’t go into the red zone until 260°F make sure you’re running only enough antifreeze as you need for your climate. too much antifreeze reduces the overall heat transfer of the coolant mixture.

 

[Chris142]

The thermostat only controls the minimum operating temp. Your truck is getting very hot. You have another issue? Is the fan pulling air?

 

[hemioiler]

sounds like you need a larger vehicle. modern EFI vehicles need to get warm to meet peak efficiency. is 250°F your coolant or oil temp? my silverado doesn’t go into the red zone until 260°F make sure you’re running only enough antifreeze as you need for your climate. too much antifreeze reduces the overall heat transfer of the coolant mixture.

Coolant. I've seen enough reviews (TFL and others) to know that all these half tons regardless of manufacture, get super hot the second you work them. I don't know what the "red zone" is. 260 is way too hot regardless of what a painted sticker on your dash gauge says.

I don't need a larger truck. My truck is more than capable of pulling my trailer and is only towing half the max rating.

The issue is not truck size or engine power, it's simply a cooling issue. The second I put in a lower thermostat it solved all my issues. Also less knock events which is a nice bonus.

Appreciate the comment about the antifreeze, that's something I haven't heard before. I'm still running whatever the factory/dealer filled though.

 

[hemioiler]

The thermostat only controls the minimum operating temp. Your truck is getting very hot. You have another issue? Is the fan pulling air?

There are no issues specifically relating to my truck. As posted above, all these trucks get hot when towing up hills in the summer. I've watched all the reviews you can find, they're all the same.

The tstat controls the coolant temp, the coolant always runs lower now. That means it can always keep the oil temps lower too.

 

[Chris142]

There are no issues specifically relating to my truck. As posted above, all these trucks get hot when towing up hills in the summer. I've watched all the reviews you can find, they're all the same.

The tstat controls the coolant temp, the coolant always runs lower now. That means it can always keep the oil temps lower too.

Thermostat can't control the upper temp. Only the low temp .

 

[hemioiler]

Thermostat can't control the upper temp. Only the low temp .

It controls the upper temp by controlling the lower temp and keeping the coolant at a lower temp. The coolant is always cooler, therefore the oil is kept cooler as well. If you were to put in a -5C thermostat and run it through an AC/refrigerant of some sort, you would absolutely have cooler peak oil temps as well.

 

[oil pan 4]

Towing at 250F is not good for the engine long term.

Turn the heat on full blast.

 

[Chris142]

It controls the upper temp by controlling the lower temp and keeping the coolant at a lower temp. The coolant is always cooler, therefore the oil is kept cooler as well. If you were to put in a -5C thermostat and run it through an AC/refrigerant of some sort, you would absolutely have cooler peak oil temps as well.

Wrong. It only means that it will take longer to get hot. Once the thermostat is fully open it does not matter if it's a 160* or 195* the upper temp will be the same. Once open it has no bearing on temp.

 

[hemioiler]

Wrong. It only means that it will take longer to get hot. Once the thermostat is fully open it does not matter if it's a 160* or 195* the upper temp will be the same. Once open it has no bearing on temp.

What you're missing is that the coolant always runs cooler now. Therefore it always keeps the oil cooler. You're arguing from the standpoint that if my coolant hits 250F then it doesn't matter that it opened at 180 vs 203+. But that's not how it works in practice. In practice my coolant always hangs out around the the 180 mark instead of the 203+ mark, and so the oil temps always follow that. The second the truck gets a breather (at top of the hill) it drops right back down again.

Keep in mind that I've driven this truck for 5.5 years now with and without the stock thermostat, I know what I've seen in the past and what I see now and my truck never hits those temps anymore.

 

[alcyon]

An oil temperature of 90°C is just fine. Water doesn't need to hit its boiling point in order to evaporate. Also keep in mind that 90°C in the sump or main gallery will translate to >100°C in the bearings and >150°C at the pistons.

Water accumulation is mainly an issue when a car is exclusively short tripped for weeks on end, with the oil temperature never exceeding 50-60°C. Once the oil temperature gets to even 80°C, any water in the oil will be boiling off very quickly.

I second this. In my previous car oil temp hardly reached a 100C, but in every UOA I had no water was found.