Oil getting hot.

Did it cool off as you descended the hills? It's worth checking your oil rad. I had this with my car earlier this year and put a new rad in which fixed it. It could be something as simple as a block in the intake (eg check for a stray plastic bag that might have got sucked in there).

In any event, if you push hard over a long period, oil temps can certainly get to the 3/4 tick especially if the ambient temp is already high. I believe oil type could be a factor, too (but discussing that is tempting fate ).

 

Richard,
There is no oil radiator fan fitted to these cars from the factory. I have a thread here that concerns adding one to the car for just this reason.

 

I have an 84 doing this now. Been doing it for over a year and it never did it before since I bought it 17 years and 60,000 miles ago.

I can nearly peg the needle just driving easy around here on a 90 degree day with perfectly normal water temps.

I changed the sending unit and swapped the gauge, changed the oil, filter, installed a big aluminum radiator (not to address this but it is in there and was doing it before) and run Redline 15/50 Still eases all the way to the right under normal simple conditions. At highway speeds (80 or so) it will max out and STAY maxed out. I have an oil radiator fan and the intake is not blocked. The oil psi is normal.

I don't have a clue what is happening. Driving me crazy

 

Please bear in mind that I know nothing.. that said, is there a thermostat installed in the oil cooling system? I know that many cars have one.

Could it be that the new oils are such low viscosity and are able to flow so quickly that they don't have time to cool going through the oil cooler? Put another way, are the folks having this problem using gees whiz synthetic oils?

 

None that I am aware of.

 

Doc, when you turn on the fan does the temp drop?

 

That's true for 308, but the OP shows a Mondial QV Cab in his profile -- and I believe those do have a stock oil radiator cooling fan (that should be checked for proper operation if a sudden change in oil temp behavior is noted IMO).

 

You, you, your good you.

 

I think your first sentace sums it up....'á hard ride in the hills'
My oil temp goes up sometimes if I drive hard for long periods on the road, normally when I'm in the hills...
I would worry, if all is normal now.

 

After all that, aren't you to the point where you should confirm/deny if the oil flow rate thru the radiator is reasonable? A simpler question is: "when the oil temp gauge is up at maximum, does the temp of the oil radiator seem/feel the same or not?"

 

On hot days here in Houston, which is almost every day from late June til late September, I plan my drives so as to NOT get caught in traffic. That is the kiss of death for my 84 QV. I have redone the entire cooling system, had the radiator rodded while I was at it and it was pronounced good to go. That is the original radiator by the way. I replaced all the foam in the radiator area to keep air moving through the radiator rather than around it and replaced both radiator fans.

I also had the lower oil cooler hose rebuilt as it was leaking and making a mess of the engine.

As long as the car is moving, the temps, both oil and water, stay pretty much on spec but as soon as I have to stop and idle both temps start to climb fairly quickly. Firing up the heater, both sides, passenger and driver to hot, and fans on full helps for a little bit, but eventually if I have to stop long enough, even that will not stop the relentless needle movement to the right.

One day I got the symptom you described where the water temp wasn't too bad but the oil temp kept climbing in a way that was not reasonable. I reached down and tapped on the oil temp gauge and the needle immediately dropped back from above 220 to below 210 and stayed there.

To this day the tap on the gauge trick is my first round of defence against the dreaded 'engine much hotter than coolant' situation and pretty much works every time. But still, I can't wait till October, when this problem goes away for a few months.

When I was restoring the interior recently, and had the clock and oil temp gauge out, I had the clock rebuilt and did a good cleaning of all the contacts for the oil temp gauge hoping that would stop this, but alas, it still does it.

When I get home after such an event the radiator fans are usually on, but the engine bay is not overly 'hot'. I'm convinced it is more of a gauge problem than an oil cooling problem. The car is definitely hot blooded, that is for sure.

$0.02

Paul

 

Get a $50 laser thermometer. Verify what temp your oil radiator is at. Compare to your gauge reading.

 

You gotta wonder why it took Ferrari until the 328 to produce a 3x8 with a cooling system that could actually function under any conditions with no concern at all about overheating. I mean, really, it wasn't a difficult problem as virtually every other car maker on earth had sussed that out many years prior...

 

You've reminded me; this has also happened to me on a couple of occasions. Wondering why my water temps were rock solid centre gauge but my oil temps had crept up, a light tap on the oil temp gauge sent its needle jumping down to more familiar territory. I believe that with a system in equilibrium, oil temps should slowly follow the behaviour of water temps.

 

This is my only other guess.

If it is not leaking, I seems that all I would need to do is remove it, thoroughly flush it and clean the outside, then reinstall it.

 

I can't imagine scenarios where an oil radiator gets plugged internally without other major symptoms (such as plugging elsewhere in the engine ... causing the hard-to-miss symptom of engine seizure).

If you suspect the external cooling fins are that dirty, you can probably figure out a way of protecting the engine and giving the radiator a good cleaning with a garden hose or pressure washer without removing it.

 

All it was was the shape of the front end on a 308.

Using fans that pull air from the inside is the only thing it really needed. The spare tire well won't let us do that on a 308. Of course, that was reconfigured on the 328 - problem solved.

 

I don't think they are "that" dirty.

I have had a puller fan on the back of it for about 15 years. turn it on and stick your hand in the door vent and it feels like a vacuum cleaner sucking air.

I cannot keep the temps down using that fan just going down the street to eat lunch.

Nothing adds up except some electrical gremlin. At this point I really don't think the oil is extra hot. I used to, but not anymore. I think it's just reading hot for whatever reason.

 

I used a laser thermometer to calibrate the temperatures. The water side needed a small tweak but I found the oil temps to be spot on with the gauge.

 

Typically, you will want your oil temperature to reach 220F or a bit more. That temp is needed to burn off the moisture otherwise you will risk corrosion in the engine internals. Conventional oils don't breakdown until the oil temp gets to around 275F. So, 220 to 240F seems a safe range.

 

I've seen it happen before where a debris like paper or so get sucked in though the ir intake duct and blocked the air low to the oil cooler without knowing it. I'm just sayin you could have some kind of blockage in there.

 

Isn't there an oil thermostate? maybe it's blocked in the close position.
When it happens on the Porsche 911, the oil temperature goes to the sky.

I do not know if the 328 oil cooler has a thermostate.

http://www.eurospares.co.uk/searchResult_one.asp?S=107576&TM=1&TMo=694&TA=1&TB=41269

What's that, just the oil temperature sender?

ciao

 

308/GT4. I've had the same problem for the last 20 years, and I live in Nevada (hot!). I never did try the tapping the gauge procedure. The engine is out right now to swap out those sodium-filled valves, and the heads were heavily carbonized from running rich (altitude: 5000 ft.).

The oil cooler is clean inside and out. I had it out of the car on the bench and filled it up with lacquer thinner and let it sit for a couple of days. Absolutely no leakage or seepage. I have installed a puller fan on the oil cooler. I'm building a set of high capacity puller fans to fit behind the radiator (there's room on a GT4) and I'm working out the switching strategy. Not sure If I'll leave the old fans enabled or not.

The cam bearing journals in the head, and the caps show little wear, and a leakdown test showed no leakage past the piston rings, so I'm pretty sure the engine lubrication system is working fine. Castrol synthetic 20w50. The exhaust valves were another story, but when we had the head on the bench we poured some lacquer thinner into each intake and exhaust port and there was no seepage or leaking at any of the valves.

We'll know more after I get the other head off (it's stuck), and disassemble the valves. We're going with NIMONIC HD for the exhaust valves.

I have another thread about my engine pull and what we're doing. more info here:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/458208-observations-gt4-engine-pull.html

 

Richard, sorry my post was sobotaged by phone auto spell correct.
At the end I meant to say that if your oil tempis back to normal I would 'NOT' worry.

All my cars from Aston to Lotus to Lambo all get the oil temp rise when given a bit of stick, water doesn't move when this happens.
On the Ferrari the oil temp goes over half way when I'm driving hard for long periods and yet I can cruise at 100mph and it'll return to just below half way.
The Oil temp will rise under repetitive hard acceleration conditions and of course hill climbing.