Oil temps for 2018/2019 Mustang GT

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Dfeeds

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I'm having the fun time of reading the endless debate between 5w20 and 5w30 (I've read plenty good about 15w40 rotella for longevity but I tried that in my 95 5.0 I got a rod knock the very moment it fired up). I figured I'll just base that answer off of my own needs (spirited daily driving around, no track, maybe some drag strip time in the future) but that ran into a hitch. With 5w20 motorcraft syn, the stock oil temp gauge doesn't budge from just below the middle mark (which is, I think, about 200-210°F) even during an hour long drive with some close to redline shifts. The oil pressure sits around 20 at idle then about 70 or 80 when revved up (it's to the far right, hard to watch that and the rpms at the same time). So with that in mind I'm fine with 5w20, I think. It has DI (both DI and PI) but it also has a 10 qt capacity. However, his whole CAFE crap still sits in the back of my mind and then I find out the oil temp gauge is the cpu guessing based on driving conditions. Lovely...


So has anyone installed an oil temp gauge in their 2018/2019, or I guess any year with the coyote and a stock temp gauge, that can attest to the stock gauge accuracy, or lack there of? I asked in another Mustang specific forum and heard crickets.
 
Welcome aboard! This CAFE mess has alot of us shaking our heads. I still can't get used to the oil cap on my Accord that says "0W20" :p
 
Spirited daily driving (especially in the flat and straight Midwest) and a little drag strip duty is hardly taxing. Neither of those uses will drive oil temp to any level you need to be concerned about.

Run a quality synthetic 5W20, go to Sonic and get yourself a shake, then lay a set of 11s on your way out (but watch out for crowds!). Your oil temp will be fine.
 
Elevated oil temps are a thing of sustained high rpms. The thermal transfer that goes on between the oil and the temperature regulated engine block and heads is enough to knock down the thermal load of short bursts. If you were to get it up into the high end of the powerband an keep it there, it would be a much different story.

I would spend no effort at all worrying about this unless you are doing track days.
 
Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
Elevated oil temps are a thing of sustained high rpms. The thermal transfer that goes on between the oil and the temperature regulated engine block and heads is enough to knock down the thermal load of short bursts. If you were to get it up into the high end of the powerband an keep it there, it would be a much different story.

I would spend no effort at all worrying about this unless you are doing track days.



Alright, cool. I'm just remembering my older 95 GT which, despite not wanting to run Xw20 in it regardless, would get to temps that are a bit too hot to run that viscosity without it thinning out.


Originally Posted by MrHorspwer
Spirited daily driving (especially in the flat and straight Midwest) and a little drag strip duty is hardly taxing. Neither of those uses will drive oil temp to any level you need to be concerned about.

Run a quality synthetic 5W20, go to Sonic and get yourself a shake, then lay a set of 11s on your way out (but watch out for crowds!). Your oil temp will be fine.


What synthetic would you recommend? I was planning on keeping oil changes at short intervals for the first couple thousand miles and figured the moto syn blend would do just fine for that. After that, mobil 1 seems to be the most popular, but a part of me gets the impression that it's more of a hype train.

Originally Posted by antonmnster
My car is regulated at 235-245F, is 11 years old, and has 195,000 miles. There is no problem.


I'm still learning all of this, but wouldn't that be a bit too hot for 5w20?

Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Welcome aboard! This CAFE mess has alot of us shaking our heads. I still can't get used to the oil cap on my Accord that says "0W20" :p


Ha, right? And thanks! I'm all for the idea of a more efficient, and thinner oil, while maintaining similar protection of the thicker stuff, but I don't like the idea of losing a motor prematurely due to some political BS.


EDIT: added info I forgot.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
Elevated oil temps are a thing of sustained high rpms. The thermal transfer that goes on between the oil and the temperature regulated engine block and heads is enough to knock down the thermal load of short bursts. If you were to get it up into the high end of the powerband an keep it there, it would be a much different story.

I would spend no effort at all worrying about this unless you are doing track days.



Agreed.
 
One question. Is the oil temp gauge a REAL temp gauge or is it just showing you something that the ECU spits out that 'should' be the temp. There are plenty of cars today where the displayed temp has nothing to do with what is actually going on in the car. Water temp gauges are the worst at this, they're more idiot light than gauge.

Worth looking into before you put a lot of stock into what a dash gauge on a new model car is telling you.
 
I would expect you to be able to bring up actual oil temperature in the digital part of the cluster like my buddy does on his F-150.
 
What synthetic would you recommend? I was planning on keeping oil changes at short intervals for the first couple thousand miles and figured the moto syn blend would do just fine for that. After that, mobil 1 seems to be the most popular, but a part of me gets the impression that it's more of a hype

I honestly don't think there's much difference between today's API SN rated synthetics. Whether you're using a house brand like Napa, Carquest, or O'Reilly, or big-name oil like Mobil, Pennzoil, or Valvoline. They all seem to do the job just fine regardless of the conditions as long as the proper oil change interval is followed. Every other day somebody is posting on here and how they went 200k on Super Tech synthetic. Bottom line everybody is making quality stuff these days.
 
Originally Posted by Dfeeds
I'm having the fun time of reading the endless debate between 5w20 and 5w30 (I've read plenty good about 15w40 rotella for longevity but I tried that in my 95 5.0 I got a rod knock the very moment it fired up). I figured I'll just base that answer off of my own needs (spirited daily driving around, no track, maybe some drag strip time in the future) but that ran into a hitch. With 5w20 motorcraft syn, the stock oil temp gauge doesn't budge from just below the middle mark (which is, I think, about 200-210°F) even during an hour long drive with some close to redline shifts. The oil pressure sits around 20 at idle then about 70 or 80 when revved up (it's to the far right, hard to watch that and the rpms at the same time). So with that in mind I'm fine with 5w20, I think. It has DI (both DI and PI) but it also has a 10 qt capacity. However, his whole CAFE crap still sits in the back of my mind and then I find out the oil temp gauge is the cpu guessing based on driving conditions. Lovely...


So has anyone installed an oil temp gauge in their 2018/2019, or I guess any year with the coyote and a stock temp gauge, that can attest to the stock gauge accuracy, or lack there of? I asked in another Mustang specific forum and heard crickets.


Do you have the Performance Pack (1 or 2)? I thought those had the oil temp gauge, vacuum, and something else which I forget, in the middle 3 AC vents?
If you have the digital dash you can pull up an oil pressure gauge in the center area. I think with the PP cars you can also add oil and diff temp. I don't have the PP and don't get those options with the digital dash.

I doubt there's much to worry about. It would take near forever to heat 10 qts of oil to a temperature that would cause concern.

I'm sure you could tap off the oil cooler line to get a "real" temp gauge in there.

Did you check over on mustang6g.com? Plenty of help and a wealth of information over there.
 
Originally Posted by ctechbob
One question. Is the oil temp gauge a REAL temp gauge or is it just showing you something that the ECU spits out that 'should' be the temp. There are plenty of cars today where the displayed temp has nothing to do with what is actually going on in the car. Water temp gauges are the worst at this, they're more idiot light than gauge.

Worth looking into before you put a lot of stock into what a dash gauge on a new model car is telling you.


I mentioned it in the OP, and hence why I posted this topic. The gauge is an extrapolation, so I was wondering if someone here with the same vehicle had actual numbers to compare with the stock gauge.


Originally Posted by OVERKILL
I would expect you to be able to bring up actual oil temperature in the digital part of the cluster like my buddy does on his F-150.


The gauge doesn't give the actual oil temp. It's basically a guess based on the driving conditions the ECU reads.

Originally Posted by itguy08


Do you have the Performance Pack (1 or 2)? I thought those had the oil temp gauge, vacuum, and something else which I forget, in the middle 3 AC vents?
If you have the digital dash you can pull up an oil pressure gauge in the center area. I think with the PP cars you can also add oil and diff temp. I don't have the PP and don't get those options with the digital dash.

I doubt there's much to worry about. It would take near forever to heat 10 qts of oil to a temperature that would cause concern.

I'm sure you could tap off the oil cooler line to get a "real" temp gauge in there.

Did you check over on mustang6g.com? Plenty of help and a wealth of information over there.


mustang6g is actually the forum I posted in and have yet to receive an answer. I have the performance pack 1 which does not come with an oil temp gauge in the center (oil pressure and boost gauge, the latter being a bit useless) but it comes with a digital one I can switch to via the dash. To my knowledge, they give the same reading. The oil temp gauge found in the gt350 can be swapped in via plug and play, which heavily implies the temp is just an extrapolation based on what the ECU reads for driving conditions. People have said that there is no actual sensor. It's the main reason why I made this post; to see if someone had installed a real sensor that could see if the stock was accurate or not. Basically, I don't want to continue to run 5w20 if my average oil temp is 215° F or higher. WIth those temps I'd definitely want to switch over to 5w30.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Dfeeds



Originally Posted by OVERKILL
I would expect you to be able to bring up actual oil temperature in the digital part of the cluster like my buddy does on his F-150.


The gauge doesn't give the actual oil temp. It's basically a guess based on the driving conditions the ECU reads.



I mean a digital read-out in the cluster. My buddy's F-150 displays the actual temperature value, in numbers, in the cluster if he goes through the options.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Dfeeds said:
OVERKILL said:
I mean a digital read-out in the cluster. My buddy's F-150 displays the actual temperature value, in numbers, in the cluster if he goes through the options.


I use the digital gauge as well, but this is what mine looks like. I can't speak for the f-150 but I've read that there is no actual oil temp sensor in the Mustang GT so the gauge is derived.

S550 Oil Temp Gauge Info.JPG
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
If that's the case, that's surprising on such a new car. Our '06 Charger could display oil temperature in the cluster numerically. I would expect this to be a value that the PCM would use. In fact, I'm almost sure it is, because Ford's thermal castration mechanism, at least on earlier cars, relied on oil temperature to kick the engine into "reduce power" mode if it got too high.
 
I've read some guys complaining about thermal castration on the pp2 when they had an aftermarket oil cooler and such installed. I hope your right and the gauge is accurate, however Ford decided to get the temperature. Actual numbers would be nice, though. I got that picture through 10 minutes of googling for it and the only way I can get actual numbers is to pay for the gt350 oil temp gauge which is plug and play.
 
Originally Posted by Dfeeds
I've read some guys complaining about thermal castration on the pp2 when they had an aftermarket oil cooler and such installed. I hope your right and the gauge is accurate, however Ford decided to get the temperature. Actual numbers would be nice, though. I got that picture through 10 minutes of googling for it and the only way I can get actual numbers is to pay for the gt350 oil temp gauge which is plug and play.


Is it accessible through an OBD adapter maybe? Like a ScanGuage? I'm lucky, mine is available right in my cluster but also available on the screen of the entertainment system.
 
Don't overthink this. 10 quarts is a lot of oil. Unless your at WOT without any letting off of the gas for a hour your GT will not over heat the oil. I bet your oil temps will not be at the water boiling point when in town or driving at moderate speeds. It may reach 235F on your 4th consecutive track pass.
 
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