Usual Oil Temp Reading

[nuffsaid]

Hi all

Normal driving through the day (warmish day) I usually get at a 85-90 degrees celcius reading in my GTT.

Night driving,anything from 75-90.

Pushing it hard I get around 90-95.

Is this normal or is it too hot?

Water temp is always halfway throughout all this driving. I am usint Motul 8100 oil 5w40 if that helps.

Thanks

[kralster]

Hahahah i get the exact same temps as you in those conditions and am using the same motor oil!! but when i was at mallala i oil temp was getting up to about 120 if i was out for too many laps.

[Abo Bob]

There's nothing wrong with those temps. If you are on the track and it gets to 130 come off. If it gets anywhere near that on the street there is something wrong.

[nuffsaid]

Normal driving day or night it never goes past 95, sometimes it hovers a bit over 90 but thats the most Ive seen it go.

If I am thrashing it around the hills, whats the expected heading?

[ecl]

i think my fan clutch is stuffed or something

running around the 110 mark on hot days

at night, its around the 95 mark with normal driving

need to get it checked, theres alot of wind noise when i step on it so im guessing its the fan clutch

[mxtcy]

mine hits 110 on hot days but only when i'm on the freeway going to work, which is 110kms for 40mins straight. Whcih i reckon is normal. Otherwise it's usuall round the 90 mark

[Abo Bob]

I don't think that's normal. On the freeway you have so much air going through it shouldn't get that hot.

[n15m0]

I don't think that's normal. On the freeway you have so much air going through it shouldn't get that hot.

This is my temp reading while driving down the Gold Coast sitting at 110km/h for bout 30 mins on a freakin warm day. I'm assuming its normal. When I get back down to 60-70km/h it drops back down to around 90ish degrees.

[mxtcy]

I don't think that's normal. On the freeway you have so much air going through it shouldn't get that hot.

it's actually more like 100. 110 is only when hot day and driving up hill on the freeway, it then goes back down very quick to 90 when i come off the freeway

[rev210]

I don't think that's normal. On the freeway you have so much air going through it shouldn't get that hot.

He doesn't have an oil cooler so it's normal. car requires more engine power to move the air at 110kmh hence more power = more heat.

Mine has an oil cooler fitted and what you describe is still true, although it sits significantly lower in temp thanks to the movement of air.

[n15m0]

He doesn't have an oil cooler so it's normal. car requires more engine power to move the air at 110kmh hence more power = more heat.

Mine has an oil cooler fitted and what you describe is still true, although it sits significantly lower in temp thanks to the movement of air.

I've read somewhere that R34's come standard with water cooled oil coolers?? Is this true or just a myth??

[jmac]

Mine sits on 90-100 during normal road use (stop-start up to 100km/h). I've never seen it go over 110 on the road.

I saw 130 deg a couple of times at the QR track day recently. I was told 130 degrees C is the absolute maximum you should push "normal" oil before the polymers and stuff start breaking down. I backed off for a lap and the temp recovered pretty quickly.

I'm gonna try some Redline oil - apparently it runs a little cooler and is just generally more betterer (funky-ass polyol ester base stocks, whatever that means). If that fails then oil cooler here I come.

[Abo Bob]

I've read somewhere that R34's come standard with water cooled oil coolers?? Is this true or just a myth??

That's true. I don't know how much it helps though. It goes between your oil filter and the block.

[SkylineGTT25]

After some "running hotter then normal" dramas with my stock standard R34 I would rate the oil temp gauge as a better indication of the actual water temperature then the water temp gauge itself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the water temperature is actually the same as the what the oil temp gauge says, but after some tests with the "Consult" adapter and my laptop the oil temp appears on the majority of occasions to move in relationship to what the water temp is doing.

Let me explain further - currently this summer my car running on the North Coast of NSW (mostly hwy cruising with A/C on) in the daytime (similar weather to SE QLD) shows similar oil temps to the one in the picture above, so around 100 degrees and water temp is actually running 88-89 degrees.

Now, when I had these running hotter dramas a few months back I saw 120 degrees oil temps and around 105-110 degrees water temp and at this water temperature the water temp gauge was barely over the halfway mark and at a cold track day at Wakefield I also saw 130 + degrees oil temp. Also the ECU doesn't record a error with water temp until it reaches 140 degrees (I tested this with the Consult) and at this point I would assume that the water temp gauge would show "hot".

What I would suggest is that the hotter the water temps gets the more the ECU richens the mixture which = less power and it certainly felt that way.

So what caused my "running hotter dramas" - after f--king around with the thermostats, temp senders and fan clutches it turned out the radiator was blocked (internally) by over 50% (tubes where calsified up), so for anyone suspecting there running hot I would suggest the first thing to check would be the radiator, it means taking it into a good radiator shop and removing atleast the top tank and check that all the tubes are clear.

Lastly with this issue/testing I rate the standard manual radiator for our northern hot/humid summers as marginal at best, sure if your only cruising around town then no problem but if you do any track days even in spring or autumn I believe the engine is going to run a lot above the ideal 85/86 degrees after about the first 1/2 lap. Therefore I have decided to have made and fit a PWR 40mm radiator (which appears to be the first R34 GTT radiator they have made, as I had to send my standard radiator in so they could measure it up) and I would expect to see a drop in these normal running temperatures. Will let you know how it goes as I will pick the PWR radiator up tomorrow and all going well, fit it over the weekend.

[choyda]

Hi,

Blocked radiator... interesting. I seem to be having a similar issue:

oil temp is getting as high as n15m0's picture (100) with normal driving but not much higher with a bit of lead footing. The water temp on the consult is getting to 88 max.

I have replaced the thermostat and have noticed little difference. Obviously, new coolant was added once the thermo came off to top it up but I did notice that there was some very light milkyness in the coolant. To add to it further, the top radiator hose is not becoming hard so there isn't much pressure. If there is low flow due to a blockage, this could be it. Is checking for blockages something I can do at home or will it need a full removal and flush?

Damo

[satanic]

No matter how hard I drive or how much I granny the thing... I find that my oil temp gauge is always sitting just a mm over the second indication mark on the stock gauge.

I have never seen it rise higher than that temp. I know the gauge is working though - we were concerned about that too

Ahh yes, forgot to mention the air locks that occur in the radiator... we copped a PHAT one when we were doing the turbo, had to get it out in its entirety as it wasn't letting ANY coolant go through the engine = DANGER!

Maybe check your radiators if your coolant temp is skyrocketing!

[choyda]

No matter how hard I drive or how much I granny the thing... I find that my oil temp gauge is always sitting just a mm over the second indication mark on the stock gauge.

I have never seen it rise higher than that temp. I know the gauge is working though - we were concerned about that too

Ahh yes, forgot to mention the air locks that occur in the radiator... we copped a PHAT one when we were doing the turbo, had to get it out in its entirety as it wasn't letting ANY coolant go through the engine = DANGER!

Maybe check your radiators if your coolant temp is skyrocketing!

In my instance, coolant is fine. I wonder what the cause for nuffsaid's is. Could be the same issue I have.

[SkylineGTT25]

The only way to check is to have the top tank removed from the radiator professionally and check the water flow through each of the tubes. You can have the radiator connected to the garden hose in the back yard for a fortnight and you will never know if it partially blocked and it won't clear it either.

Hi,

Blocked radiator... interesting. I seem to be having a similar issue:

oil temp is getting as high as n15m0's picture (100) with normal driving but not much higher with a bit of lead footing. The water temp on the consult is getting to 88 max.

I have replaced the thermostat and have noticed little difference. Obviously, new coolant was added once the thermo came off to top it up but I did notice that there was some very light milkyness in the coolant. To add to it further, the top radiator hose is not becoming hard so there isn't much pressure. If there is low flow due to a blockage, this could be it. Is checking for blockages something I can do at home or will it need a full removal and flush?

Damo

[SkylineGTT25]

Follow up on the PWR radiator into my R34 GTT - Engine Coolant temp now sits on 86-87 degrees C consistantly whether around town or on the highway cruising 100-110 km/h and also after numerous hard acceration runs still it doesn't change. Oil temp sit on 92-95 degrees and also doesn't chnage from that range This is with a 32-35 degrees ambient temp middle of the day. Look forward to doing a track day to see how the temps go then.

Following is some pics of the radiator. First pic show difference in the thickness between the original rad and the PWR one !