So, my oil rarely, if ever reaches 180° during normal driving, unless it's in the summer. The rest of the time, it floats right around 140, possibly a little less.
yesterday, during highway driving, it may be reached 150°.
I assume that means my oil filter housing thermostat is stuck open?
Thanks, in advance.
6.5qt oil pan
Setrab oil cooler.
Temp taken from drain plug

 

Shouldnt that be easy enough to just feel the oil rad and see if its warming up with your logged oil temps?

 

No way to log oil temps, I just watch the gauge. Cooler isn't super easy to get to, so thought to ask before taking stuff apart.

Just seems the car should never run that cool, with a working thermostat.

 

How many miles on the oil Kaj? It could be the oil filter tstat sticking open or maybe its a break down of the oil and its heating up more. Just a thought?

 

Zero miles on this oil and filter. It's been doing this for years, since swapping the pan/cooler/etc. The oil in the car never has more than a few hundred miles on it. I had the OFH apart when I put in the new shortblock so wondering if I put something together wrong, if that's even possible.

 

It's not stuck, this is normal ops with the high capacity pan and big cooler. My car is the same in winter. I covered the oil cooler duct opening in the bumper and got it to hit 165-170 fairly consistently, but you also need the under tray on so air doesn't come up from below.

If you ever look in the housing, the tstat doesn't force the oil to bypass the cooler, it "allows" it to by having the bypass port uncovered. When the oil warms up, it plugs the bypass port and then forces all (or most anyways) of the oil through the cooler. It doesn't work quite the same as a coolant tstat.

 

That all makes sense and makes me feel better. Last winter, I wrapped the cooler in insulation. It did help. Blocking the opening in the bumper would be so much easier, now that I've added the undertray back onto the car.

 

Going to a larger oil pan with a big flat bottom acting as a heat sink dropped my oil temperatures a surprising amount. Without an undertray it would be difficult even in summer to get it good and hot.

 

Well, hell. All my oil mods worked too well LOL

but that explains why I can beat on it at the track and oil to stay reasonable. Fair trade off.