new 328 owner..as promised, my first questions and comments

I misread your question, I thought you meant what does the oil temp need to AT LEAST get up to.

Mine has been near pegging out for years under simple normal driving conditions in any outside temps. Water temps normal. I used to only see that on the track.

I put a new sender in and tried two different temp gauges but they all show it nearly maxing out. I'm not concerned about the oil tolerating the temps (if they are accurate), I'm concerned and wondering why it is reading so damn high all the time when it didn't for the first 15 years I owned it.

 

First thing to check is that the cooler inlet ain't clogged with leaves or something.

 

It isnt. First thing I checked. I was hoping to pull out a bird nest or something.

We have been thru everything. I was even considering replacing the oil cooler and talked to Ted Rutland about it (I miss that guy). He told me he had no idea if they are a legitimate problem after 40 years or not but he did sell a lot of them.

I finally just gave up worrying about it a couple years ago only problem with that is I dont really have an oil temp gauge since it is always just reading "hot"

 

Really? I mean Austin is supposed to be a great place. ;-)

 

Does it read high the moment you start the car, or is it rising in a normal fashion as the engine warms?

 

No. It swings over as the car warms but it just keeps going right. It appears to take about half the time to warm as you would expect and it settles very close to the far right.

 

Albert k, this is called thread creep. Don't be afraid to bring us back on topic. In the meantime, Tommy you have verified this with an IR temp gun right? Pre-oil cooler and post oil cooler?

 

Not sure even that could do it. We used to plug the intake intentionally to get the oil hot enough for a test for Ferrari and it was hard even then.

 

Lots of potential reasons for it but not normal by any standard.

 

Ron Reineke over in Atlanta is who I use. At one point he stuck little temp indicating tape things they use on race cars in various places, one being the oil filter. They all indicate temps to be perfectly normal. Car runs fine. Water temp is normal. It's just odd. I believe it to be a non problem in so far as anything actually getting that hot. I think the issue is somewhere in the electrical circuit causing a misread.

It's been doing this for a few years now. Something just occurred to me a moment ago; I have one of those digital oil psi sending units (actually the second or third one made). Any chance something happened when it was put in or are the circuits TOTALLY separate? Is there any shared wiring?

I'm just throwing **** out here. Brainstorming.

 

While far from perfect, this should give ton a rudimentary lesson in 328 variations.

http://www.308-328.com/328/index328.html

 

"far from perfect" May be but I don't know other place with more information and the author is ready to add all contribution

 

Are you the author? If so, I’m happy to PM a few suggestions.

 

"Triple Black" is the site's author. Parts relating to the 328 was contributed in part by yours truly...myself. Suggestions always welcome.
Rgds

 

Thank you. Love the site. I’ll PM you a few suggestions.