Oil Temperatures ?

[il_signore97]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
99GASE2 -
Climate makes a HUGE difference in oil temps.
How can you say otherwise?



This is a generalization, and is NOT correct for ALL cars.

My VQ runs the same oil temps summer and winter (and these are Canadian winters) no matter what. My oil takes only a few minutes longer to warm up in the winter than in the summer. Insignificant.

In the summer, my oil will be up to 220 F in less than 10 minutes, and will be at the same temp in the winter in about 15 min. If I don't use the highway at all in the winter, the temp is about 10 degrees cooler (~210). This is measured as the oil comes out of the sump and gets pumped to the oil filter.

As you can see by this example, it is not correct to generalize. You need to strictly speak about a certain car with a certain engine, as many of them are quite different from each other.

My brother's Vibe on the other hand... It can't even heat it's coolant up in the winter let alone the oil...

 

[99 GASE2]

Does anyone have opinions on how hot oil temps regularly have to be, before dino motor oil is not suggested ?

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
99GASE2 -
Climate makes a HUGE difference in oil temps.
How can you say otherwise?


I think Jim A is correct, it's largely vehicle-dependent.

I can say that ambient temps make almost no difference in my Freestyle--because I've measured them while driving in vastly different ambient temperatures...

 

[edhackett]

My WRX oil temperature would run ambient +100F from about 40F to 100F, that was bulk temperature measured in the sump. My Alfa Romeos would read a very steady 190F measured in the core of the engine.

Ambient temperature has a great effect on the temperature of the oil in the sump. The temperature within the core of the engine is much more stable, especially if measured near the end of the oil path.

Ed

 

[SteveSRT8]

totally vehicle dependent.

Variables include engine design. Many engines have piston oil squirters that shoot oil directly onto the underside of the piston crown. Think that might heat things up a bit?

Oil coolers on many vehicles run through the radiator and tend to keep the oil very close to coolant temp no matter how they are driven.

In almost any vehicle the oil temp rises as a function of output. Ask for a lot of sustained power and the temps rise.

 

[mechtech2]

Try doing thousands of oil changes winter and summer.

Then tell me about climate or ambient conditions having no effect on oil temperatures.

Puh-leeze!

 

[SteveSRT8]

hmmm, I used to moonlight in a shop as a kid. Seems like oil was hotter in summer and cooler in winter.

Duh. A little "Captain Obvious" attack?

But even I rarely did a thousand oil changes in a year! You're my hero! That's 4 every day!

But seriously, not every client drives the same distance or style. And I've had cars on the rack that had SMOKING oil in them in cold temps! They didn't all come in cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
hmmm, I used to moonlight in a shop as a kid. Seems like oil was hotter in summer and cooler in winter.


That's certainly true. However, as others have pointed out, oil temperature sending units are in different locations in different vehicles, and sump size makes a difference in both extremes.

My Audi's oil temperature sending unit is mounted in the oil pump, which is butted right up against the engine, probably allow for a reasonable amount of thermal contact. There is a slight difference between the coldest day in the year (i.e. -40 C) and the hottest day in the year (i.e. +40 C). It's not as huge a difference in that vehicle as one would expect. The difference is no more than 10 C. The hottest I ever got the gauge to was 20 C higher than winter, and that was running a hot day with a lot of boost on an extended high speed run. The oil temperature gauge still didn't exceed 80 or 85 C.

Contrast this to my F-150 in it's pre-rebuild days. It has no oil temperature gauge, but the effect on ambient temperatures with respect to oil temperature and viscosity were rather obvious, even though it lacked both pressure and temperature gauges. In the winter, I could run 5w30 with no problems. In the summer, when it got hot, at idle, the low pressure light would come on intermittently. In the winter, with the exact same oil, it would not.

Obviously, the oil in the pan was a lot hotter in the summer than it was in the winter, and it doesn't take a gauge to tell that. Heck, even oil pan placement probably plays a role. The Audi's isn't nearly as low into the airstream as it appears to be in the F-150. Nonetheless, oil temperatures in the sump are obviously going to be lower in the winter than in the summer.

 

[Errtt]

Originally Posted By: 99 GASE2
Does anyone have opinions on how hot oil temps regularly have to be, before dino motor oil is not suggested ?

Been awhile and if I remember correctly, and in the motorcycle world, dino good to 230. It's starts to shear down the oil so then synthetic should be used if 230 or higher for better shear stability. That's if I remember that correctly. Harley air cooled engines in summer going slow or stopped at lights/traffic application. So I use Amsoil synthetic in my Harley, but I have a tough time getting the oil up to temp, especially during cooler temps it's hard to pass 180 on the oil temp gauge. I'm on my 3rd gauge and it takes the temp in the oil bag (oil tank). So no bad gauge. (analog stick)
So I have some concern getting oil temps up in cooler weather, but I'm not seeing any condensation indications yet. So I'm not switching back to dino.
My other bike (water cooled) I'm using T6 Rotella 5w-40 and it takes some riding to get the temp up. Ride harder/longer and no short trips.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: 99 GASE2
Does anyone have opinions on how hot oil temps regularly have to be, before dino motor oil is not suggested ?


Hey Mike! In my opinion, I wouldn't want to be running a conventional oil if the oil temps regularily got above 230F. But that's just me.

FWIW, my Corvette typically sees oil temps of around 200-205 at steady highway speeds in the winter, and about 210-215 in the summer. If I push it hard for a while I can get the oil temp up to around 250, although I don't recall going much higher than this. I know for sure if I were to road race the car I'd see it get up to 300 though, based on what other C5 owners have told me. All the hardcore road racers run a good oil cooler (and even then they report it's hard to keep the oil temp BELOW 250 under racing conditions)

 

[99 GASE2]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: 99 GASE2
Does anyone have opinions on how hot oil temps regularly have to be, before dino motor oil is not suggested ?


Hey Mike! In my opinion, I wouldn't want to be running a conventional oil if the oil temps regularily got above 230F. But that's just me.

FWIW, my Corvette typically sees oil temps of around 200-205 at steady highway speeds in the winter, and about 210-215 in the summer. If I push it hard for a while I can get the oil temp up to around 250, although I don't recall going much higher than this. I know for sure if I were to road race the car I'd see it get up to 300 though, based on what other C5 owners have told me. All the hardcore road racers run a good oil cooler (and even then they report it's hard to keep the oil temp BELOW 250 under racing conditions)

Hey Pat

That was what I was thinking too.

I would of thought running those temps regularly would kill the oil faster.
But it seems to be the right balance.
Driving the car cold kills the oil faster on my OLM.

My last OCI ran 17,306 km / 10,753 miles & almost 7 months.
Based on the OLM system.

Yes, I did a bit of cruising on the weekends this summer

Can't wait for summer, & see the local GTA vette guys/gals again.
I miss the Thursday night Hot Dog Runs by Stan & others.