Relationship between Oil Temperature and Oil Pressure

Water temp was a little high and I'd suggest seeing what can be done to make that system work a little better. Above middle is OK idling or crawling around town but on the road at speed it really should go down a little below middle.

The oil temp was fine. Modern oils have a safe operating range far higher than the old gauges suggest. The pressure is always highly suspect. The gauges are so often wrong, a bad joke really for an expensive sports car. I'd put a mechanical gauge on it and get some good baseline numbers with hot oil. We are in the same area and I see no reason to go over 40w oil unless it is a track day.

 

Reviving this to get an idea of what a proper oil temperature should be. For example; I am putting an auxiliary oil radiator fan on my car, what is the ideal temp that the thermostatic control should turn on the fan?


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You won't get much difference with an oil cooler fan. I have had a switched puller behind mine for about 15 years. Never made much difference. Traffic, track, nothing.

 

It is my understanding that 100C considered the normal fully-warmed-up oil operating temperature. As Rifledriver mentioned, actually measuring this on the somewhat myopic gauges/senders in these cars can be a point of frustration or humor depending on how you look at it.

 

I've been interested in putting a fan on the cooler for years. I decided to revive this project and went looking from Tommy's old post.
Can't figure out where the beginning is, but here is some pics & details:

Partial broken link

Better link into the bowels of Ferrari chat
FerrariChat.com: ATTENTION 308 OWNERS: OIL COOLER FAN INSTALLED LOOK!!!

 

I forgot about that old thread. Well, after many many years of real world testing by me, sadly it never really lived up to my headline.

I would rather have it, than not, though.

 

Wow, that was over 18,000 posts and nearly 12 years ago.

 

Yah. We're getting old (er)

So you don't think it really does anything for the car, huh?

 

I tried one and it made no perceptible change street or the occasional track.

heavier oil, (x-50) for hard use/track.

chris

 

At low speeds when the fan might do some good it isn't needed. At high speeds when it might be needed it will actually inhibit air flow.

How high is the temp? The gauges were designed for oil made in the period. Modern synthetic oils can safely be operated at 320 or more degrees. Can't read anything near that high on a 308 or 328 gauge.

The only Ferrari of the period with an oil temp problem was the BB's.


Bottom line?

Quit worrying about it.

 

I think the concern really isn't if the modern synthetics can handle the heat. I think the question that needs to be investigated is why is it getting so hot to begin with.

As long as the water temps remain within normal limits, do we need to worry about a high oil temp reading or worry about the cause and disparity with the water?

 

I have a fan on my oil cooler as that's how it came - I adapted an aftermarket B&M cooler to a bracket and duct I custom made, to replace the original (leaky) cooler.

I found that the fan kept the oil TOO COLD. It was considerably colder than the water temp (so probably in the 180 degree range VS. 195-ish for water, according to the gauges ). I wired that fan on a switch when I installed it, because I expected I would need to shut it off when I would drive it in the winter. I kept driving with it off in the Spring, then in the Summer and haven't turned it back on since. Temps now are roughly the same for both water and oil.
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320 is indeed pretty high. Brian, i do understand that modern oils are able to work on these temperatures. ( we actually hade a similar thread a couple of years ago and you mentionned this exact same number) But, as these oil temperatures were not possible in the cars back than, is there any other tresshold? Meaning, is there any part of the engine that cannot handle these temperatures?

With other words, if the oil itself is not the weakest link anymore, what is next?

 

Why would oil be a "weak link" at all? The cars ran fine on the oil produced back in the day. Why would anyone expect that the oil used now has to somehow be "better" in order to work properly? The fact that oil it IS better now is a different, and unrelated, issue.

It seems a lot of time is spent hand wringing over non problems. These cars didn't need a fan on an oil cooler when new. If it needs one now, something is, as they say in the technical world, "broke." Fix that.

 

I have a water temp issue when the car isn't going > 40mph. Here in the NorthEast, there's so much traffic and humidity that it's frequently near or in the red.
I've chased it down for years to no avail.
When the car was at a shop that preps Ferrari challenge cars and other race cars, the mechanic suggested I forget about the water & put a fan on the oil cooler as that is what really matters and if the oil was cool, the water would follow. That's when I became interested in Tommy's solution.

 

In my case with the modified motor (remember close to 350hp) I was concerned that perhaps the oil cooling capacity of the stock configuration wasn't up to snuff. So I am thinking of adding the aux fan for those hot days and hot running. Don't want it running in cool weather so a thermostat control seems appropriate.
Brian I suppose I need to do some hot weather testing to see if it's really needed at all.
To those that have done this modification , great projects you did. Thanks for posting!


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Cooling of either water or oil was not an issue on those cars. Address the symptom you have and do not reengineer the car.

 

Problems surface over time. When these cars were new, they only needed belt changes every 50,000 miles....

When I installed the oil cooler fan on my car back then, it was to *try* to calm high oil temps on the track. My car would peg the oil temp after 20 minutes of 7700 rpm shifts, especially at TigPrix. Water temps really never increased.

As the years went by, I found myself trying to use it to cool the car in traffic. Mine has a tendency to run hot if not moving and it has always done this in the 18 years I have driven it. That is another subject.

The fan never really worked that well. Maybe a little but not enough to feel like I found a solution.

So anyway, I never worried about the oil's ability to handel the heat stress, I was worried about outher things such as the cause and elements of the car that, perhaps, wouldn't be so happy with an oil temp pegged all the way to the right.

 

"When I installed the oil cooler fan on my car back then, it was to *try* to calm high oil temps on the track. My car would peg the oil temp after 20 minutes of 7700 rpm shifts, especially at TigPrix. Water temps really never increased. "

Certainly, if you are tracking/racing a car, the load on the cooling systems - oil and water - are quite different than they are for street use so, like virtually any street cars, some mods may be needed for that use. Also, if the motor is now modified to produce considerably more HP, more heat is generated for the oil/water systems to dissipate which is beyond that of the original design.

 

What is a high reading? I have yet to see where anyone here has mentioned an oil temp number that was in anyway worthy of worrying about by any standard. I reread the thread to be sure I didn't miss anything and 210 is the only number mentioned. That is certainly not high. It is considered minimum by some to keep moisture from accumulating.

If and when high temps are experienced I suppose it can be a topic of discussion.

 

as long as the systems works as designed, there is no need for an oil cooler on a street driven car - never even thought of one

yub, I always considered 210 as "engine warm"
have been driving with those temps for the last 35000 miles -
since the engine is still running, my consideration can not be that wrong

 

agreed - find/fix the problem. I'm just out of ideas. But I'll resurrect an older thread rather than detour this one. TY.

 

Back in my early years with the car I was unfamiliar with it and its personality in general. The hot oil temps on the track was not alarming to me - the reason was obvious, I was just trying to come up with a way to cool it off while I was out there.

Once I realized the fan wasn't going to make any difference, I just forgot about it from then on. The only time I flipped the switch was when I was stuck in traffic and all the needles started heading to the right.

If the pros in this thread say it isn't going to hurt anything, I'm good. Nothing to worry about.

 

I agree but am still left wondering if higher oil temps cause higher water temps? If cooling the oil a bit helps overall engine temps in those gridlock hot days city driving wouldn't it help?


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