Ya'll gotta build your dream garages and make the work come to you or travel for a short while and return just in time to prep for events!

 

I was on track yesterday with my 25 row Derale cooler relocated the front on the driver's side. No ducting on it yet.

Ambient temps were 91-95 with heat index in the low 100s for most of the day. Oil temps got up 270 but never any higher. Running Dominator 15-50.

 

@V.8MR , @ayoustin , what pan are you guys running? thicker oils will also run hotter.

perfect chance to test out a heat-coated downpipe...

 

Marc has a Racefab pan. I'm on a custom one I made for myself that's similar with different baffling. Yes thicker oils will run hotter, the additive packages will have more influence over film strength than viscosity though.

My exhaust doesn't go underneath the engine so not a problem for me 😁

 

Show and tell time

 

Bumper exit 🙂

 

I'm also running more power. Some humidity with similar ambient temp or heat index does not explain another 30-40*F in oil temp.

 

what's safe here for the oils temp wise?

 

If your temp sensor in the oil pan where its supposed to be, you want to keep it below 230. 240-250 is "ok" but I wouldn't run it there for extended periods.

 

seems like a big ask if ambient is like 100 degrees, no?

 

It is. In my experience the minimum oil temp you want to see is 220-230. If you don't get it up to at least 220 any condensation in the oil won't boil out. 250-270 is what I consider normal "hot" oil temps.

270 is notable temperature
280 is be prepared to back off
290 is back off
300 is give it a full cool down and see how much it drops back down

If it goes much past 300 absolutely back off.

 

That's cool. I go by what real race engine builders and teams want to see in their $100k trophy truck engines, class1 cars, etc. Stuff that makes big power and goes the distance doing it (Baja 1000 for example). It's probably a good bench mark for getting my own engine to last since the people buying these engines also expect them to complete a race without issues.

All of those trucks have alarms at 220-230* oil temp, and also an alarm if the delta between coolant and oil exceeds 20 or 30*. It depends on the race. The shorter sprint races (<100 miles) they allow the higher temps and deltas. Realistically, they're generally at around 190-200* because they run 2 huge oil coolers with fans.

This is on engines that get torn down and refreshed every 1500 (yes, one thousand five-hundred) miles and every single part has a replacement interval whether or not it meets dimensional and hardness specifications. And they still want strict control and monitoring of oil temps. 250-270 is simply not normal nor is it recommended as being considered safe.

Beyond that real world experience, y'all can come to your own conclusions and (IMO) play chicken with the service life of your engines.

 

can always do uoa's to see how the engine is wearing. mine have been fine but i barely make 320hp if that, on 24psi stock turbo & boltons.

 

Since we're going by real racecar measures then I stand by what I said as that's from my personal experience with IMSA Lamborghini and Audi V10 engines as well as Indycar engines.

I've also discussed this topic with engine builders and the engineers who build said engines.

If what you said is true about oil needing to be such a low temp the standard for the HTHS value of oil wouldn't be measured at 300F.

 

320whp. Or probably close to 380hp at the crank. Nearly 200hp/L, and 100 more hp than stock. That is a racing engine. No matter how you put it.

Good luck.

HTHS simulate temps in the bearing journal. Doesn't necessarily represent the temp once the oil has cooled a bit and settled to the sump.