It is 93f today and I'm worried my oil temps are too high. It is a 1985 euro spec car and I'm running 5w/50 oil Water temps are just under the half mark but oil temp is just under 120c (100 is middle and 140 is the top) I am driving aggressively and once I slow down and cruise it lowers down to 100c. Is it normal for oil temps to rise to 120c or 248f in hot weather under aggressive driving?
Sounds like normal to me Oil temps do go higher than water when one gives it some stick! Water temp should be fairly constant at speed and should recover within a couple of mins after a spell in traffic with the fans on. Regards Bell
Oil temps above 230 F probably mean your oil cooler fan has failed. Synthetic oil is good to about 260F and mineral oil to about 230F. Probably higher. Water temps are harmless to the engine up to at least 260F but might not be harmless to your cooling system. My cooling fans activate at 230F which I have never experienced even in 90F ambient and road speeds. My water cooling system is almost entirely depressurize with 60/40 glycol which is good for 235F at which time my fans come on. The resrvoir cap is simply tight enough to keep splash from exiting. In two years and going on 11,000 miles I have not added one once of coolant. I regret not having an F to C converter at hand. However, I would consider 20-50 synthetic in such hot weather. Thats what I have been running all year long even in 20F temps. [Which was a silly experiment but which turned harmless]. There is one more thing. Some owners suspect synthetic is more prone to leak. It is true the original spec was a synthetic/mineral blend so there might be something to it. Last fall I was getting an oil leak from either the passenger side main bearing or the cam bearings above. So much so there was sufficient smoke I worried about fire! Expecting my local wrench to replace these seals I simply visited my local AutoZone, purchase one each of every single stop leak on sale and added them more or less at the same time. Right away the smoke stopped. A thousand miles later there are few if any fumes. Three thousand miles later all that stuff is still in there and I do not know if I will bother with those seals. And I run vigorously. In my experience oil is not determinative. You need 5psi of something slippery. IMHO thats about all.
I have driven my car in warm weather quite a bit lately. Temps in the mid 90s F. Water and Oil temps seem to stabilize at about 190 to 210 F. Once there, they stabilize and don't seem to go up or down at all. Sid
