308 GT4 temperature

Hi all, my buddy had a overheating problem with the oil temperature on his 308 GT4. With track use, the oil was getting up towards the 140 mark on the gauge although the water temperature was at a rock solid 90. We are wondering if there is a popular mod to keep the temp down, something like a water/oil heat exchanger, an oil thermostat to a larger cooler. I believe there is not oil thermostat on the car as standard.
Any ideas gratefully received,
Al Cowan

 

Al...Welcome to FChat. Try posting this in the 308/328/Mondial section for the best chances of having all the GT4 owners read and respond. What viscosity oil is your friend running, and does the car have the original oil cooler?

 

The manual says above 130 deg c go to a dealer but thats not the whole story : if the ambient was high (for Scotland) and the oil relatively basic the temperature will soar on a track day - it may be worth checking the cooler but I suspect it was the ambient as much as anything

 

Agree with others, please post more data including what oil/weight was used and ambient temps. Have attacked the heat problem in the 308GTS QV here with sucess.

 

I had similar issues with my old GT4 track car (#10156- see attached), not to mention the usual oil starvation in hard cornering. An additional oil cooler along with 20W/50 Mobil 1 helped the oil temp a bit, and an Accusump lessened, but didn't eliminate, the surge issue. I suspect (fear) that the only good solution to both is conversion to a good dry sump system.
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The GT4 has a summer/winter switch on the oil cooler. Check to make sure that it is set for summer setting. The winter setting basically restricts the airflow to the cooler, allowing the oil to warm up faster on those cold days.

I don't think this option exists on the other 308 series cars.

May not be able to completely resolve your problem, but could be one place to start.

Dom

 

The summer setting was deleted on Scottish cars !

 

Hi all, he was using 20/w50 Castrol Classic, the ambient temperature was about 65 to 70 F. It was at the Nurburgring in Germany where the problem was. The oil now resembles black sludge and the car was smoking like a b(*$()*&"$ on the way back. We have since removed the engine and found the bores very worn. The compression was right down on 1 cylinder after a bit of pickup on it. It is going to get the 82 mil 10.5 to one pistons in it with a crank grind, new valves all round and probably new guides. A bigger oil cooler may be fitted as well, will need to flush the old one anyway I suppose, I have an ulrasonic bath which is perfect for things like this!
Al Cowan

 

Well that summed it up in a nut shell.

 

Hi. This may be too old to get a response, but where is said switch? Thanks

 

I’m still here, though my GT4 has been sold a while ago. The switch is on the oil cooler. You can see a photo of it in this thread:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/dino-308-gt4-oil-cooler-housing.429467/

It’s in the first photo on the side of the housing.

 

Lever, or moveable handle, might be a better description (switch is too "electrical"). It's described in your 308GT4 OM as a "double position lever (winter and summer)":

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Lever/arm not switch

 

Thanks for the explanation. It would appear that this was a feature for North American cars. My car, like the Scot noted above, doesn't have this feature. Perhaps they figured that European climate variation wasn't so great, or they merely dropped the flapper by 1979 when my car was made.