Oil Temp

[old captain slow]

I've just had an Apollo fitted and realise that I now have another piece of possibly useless info to worry about ie oil temp. On the motorway (sad) at a steady 80ish the oil runs at about 110C. Is this ok. What's normal? What temp should I start to worry? Car is a 1600K SS.

 

Incidentally when I first drove the car the oil press was about 2bar. Turned out to be a bad contact on the sender, but it does bring up a sense of doom at the time!

[Alex Wong1697456877]

I know what you mean about having more numbers to worry about. I have oil temp, oil pressure, water temp and fuel pressure blinking at me all the time. It didn't stop me blowing the engine though!

 

110 degC is starting to get hot for oil. I wouldn't worry about it at that temperature. Mine was at 125 degC when the engine let go. From what I've heard, Mobil one degenerates at 130 degC but I wouldn't quote me on that.

 

 

 

Alex Wong

alex.wong@lotus7club.co.uk

www.alexwong.net

Home : 44-(0)121-440 6972

Fax : 44-(0)121-440 4601

[old captain slow]

I just got a reply from an email to Comma. They say, "Syner-Z and Syner-G are used in many racing Caterhams and in Matt Neals private Nissan Primera - currently leading the privateer class of the British Touring Cars.

These oils should perform without problems at temperatures of 120 to 130C and possibly even higher."

 

Found out what happened to your engine yet? The photo looked pretty scary.

 

Regards,

 

David White

[Andrew Dent]

This might seem a stupid question, but how much oil did you put in.

On a recent visit to the garage to refill the oil with an Apollo tank, I think we put in around 6-7 litres. The pressure gauge never moves off 4 bar. Even when running at high temps. My oil temp ran at 110 deg after 6 laps over 100+ mph at CERAM where Alex blew his engine. Worthy of shoving some more oil in perhaps?

Should also mention that my SLR runs at around 80 deg +/- some depending on air temp

 

Andrew Dent

 

Edited by - Andrew Dent on 16 Aug 2000 20:19:03

[old captain slow]

No idea how much oil as I had Caterham fit the Apollo at the same time as checking out some possible suspension probs. With the engine hot and running the oil is just above the full line, so suppose this is ok. Oil pressure is 3.9 bar at "normal" raod speed, but drops to about 3.5 bar when thrashed, then recovers to 3.9 bar when the oil cools down again.

 

????

[Nick]

I've just had an Apollo fitted to my 1.6K SS. Pressure has dropped (!) from a shade less than 4 to a tad over 3. I had a big cloud of smoke out of the exhaust whilst changing up from 3rd to 4th at about 6000 rpm, though everything else was fine. Minister reckon this was because there was too much oil (just over 7 litres I think) in the Apollo. With the engine hot and running, the oil level is at the top of the flat marker on the ridiculous dipstick.

 

I'm a bit concerned that the pressure has dropped...

[Pierre Gillet]

Sorry, a naive question! What do you mean by "Apollo"?

Pierre

 

 

[Nick]

It's the name for the anti-cavitation tank.

 

Cheers, Nick

 

PS - how are your upgrades and wing conversions going?

[Pierre Gillet]

Nick, still contemplated I am afraid! My wife is against them as she is the main user of the car during week time.The way to go would be to have a second one, and develop it as I wish to. But finance is stretched...

For the time being she has accepted the following:

-021 R in 14 inches to replace the Michelin Pilot which are worn.

- Oil temperature with a switch using the water gauge

-Spun Ali fuel tank cap

- kick release steering wheel

She is strongly against Cycle wings ( she likes to "retain the class" and she is concerned about wearing gogles and/or helmet to protect herselves!)

 

Anticavitation tank: is it a wet sump with special bafles, or a more sophisticated device?

 

Cheers,

Pierre

PS: She would accept the SS conversion of our 1.6K 40 th Anniversary.( she likes power)...but find the cost to be too high for 20 ps more.

So, as you can see I have still a lot to do to convince her.

 

 

[Tony Martyr]

A sump temperature of 130 degrees C is the normal 'high warning' limit set in test cells that I am currently running (new design V6 engines) the shut-down limit is set at 135 degrees. You do not need to worry about 110 degrees as a stabalised maximum. The change in oil long chain molecules that takes place with the change in temperature is normally reversable in the range -40 to +130 so long as the oil is not contaminated by other engine chemicals such as water, fuel and combusion by-products - which is why hard driven engines have their oil changed frequently.

I have also noticed the drop in oil pressure following fitting of the Apollo tank. Since pressure is a direct funtion of resistance to flow I guess that the new system is offering less resistance to the oil pump than the original one that went though the filter and back into the sump. I forgot to check but I assume the oil flow is through the filter then up to the top of the tank where it enters a cyclone that allows the air to come out of solution and leak into the rocker cover. The rocker cover can't be particularly pressurised because the oil mist is piped into the inlet system. The lower oil pressure seems to make sense and so long as it is sufficient to push the oil through the crank bearings etc the exact level doesn't concern me that much; it is oil flow that counts not oil pressure. You can have very high pressure but no lubrication if the oil galleries are blocked.

[elie boone]

Does one of you guys ever cheked the oil temp and water temp gauge on his accuracy, i have found a 10 degree difference (over reading )on a VDO set up, so first check your gauge for accuracy with a thermometer.