Oil Temp Sensor Question
#1
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Oil Temp Sensor Question
I am assembling a DIY oil cooler set up and I have come to a stumbling block. I was looking at the highly recommended MoCal sandwich plate, but it looks to only have an in-out lines on it. Where do you guys recommend placing the sensor? I have seen some sensors placed where the oil drain plug was, but I understand that is not ideal for accurate temp readings?
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You can get AN adapters that have a 1/8 port in them. So your oil temp would then be inline with one of the lines coming out of the plate. You want to make sure you're reading the sandwich out --> cooler in line so you know how hot it is coming out of the block. I ran my temp sender this way when I had an oil filter relo kit on the car.
On our cars I don't know that the oil pan is a bad place to get the temperature reading. When reading oil temp at the filter, that oil has already passed through the stock oil cooler sandwich plate (unless it has been removed) and therefore has already transferred some heat, so the reading should be lower than actual.
I am interested in seeing where those who track more often / harder than I do mount their sensor.
On our cars I don't know that the oil pan is a bad place to get the temperature reading. When reading oil temp at the filter, that oil has already passed through the stock oil cooler sandwich plate (unless it has been removed) and therefore has already transferred some heat, so the reading should be lower than actual.
I am interested in seeing where those who track more often / harder than I do mount their sensor.
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I think with an adequate cooling system, 200whp should be reliable quite easily.
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Just as an FYI, if you're talking about the Mocal plate which has a built-in thermostat, it was my experience that the thermostat bypassed quite a bit of oil into the cooler even when "closed", with the result that oil warmup in normal street driving was severely degraded. As in oil temps barely hitting 160 degrees at the end of my 5 mile morning commute.
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Just as an FYI, if you're talking about the Mocal plate which has a built-in thermostat, it was my experience that the thermostat bypassed quite a bit of oil into the cooler even when "closed", with the result that oil warmup in normal street driving was severely degraded. As in oil temps barely hitting 160 degrees at the end of my 5 mile morning commute.
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All I know is that when I had one of these on my DD, my oil temps never came up to normal on a typical 5-6 mile drive, regardless of outside temp.
I removed the whole system and installed an OEM 1.8-style water/oil exchanger from a later model engine. Not only did that keep my oils temps well in check for both AutoX and hard summer drives through the mountains, but the oil warmup time in the morning was decreased relative to stock (makes sense- the primary cooling system comes up to temperature much faster, and transfers heat into the oil when it's cold.)
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FYI, with my old oil cooler setup my temps were 160-170 around town, but they would climb up into the 240+ range on the highway in 100+ degree heat, and at the track they were routinely 275F or higher.
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I guess it depends on what you weekend fun runs look like.
All I know is that when I had one of these on my DD, my oil temps never came up to normal on a typical 5-6 mile drive, regardless of outside temp.
I removed the whole system and installed an OEM 1.8-style water/oil exchanger from a later model engine. Not only did that keep my oils temps well in check for both AutoX and hard summer drives through the mountains, but the oil warmup time in the morning was decreased relative to stock (makes sense- the primary cooling system comes up to temperature much faster, and transfers heat into the oil when it's cold.)
All I know is that when I had one of these on my DD, my oil temps never came up to normal on a typical 5-6 mile drive, regardless of outside temp.
I removed the whole system and installed an OEM 1.8-style water/oil exchanger from a later model engine. Not only did that keep my oils temps well in check for both AutoX and hard summer drives through the mountains, but the oil warmup time in the morning was decreased relative to stock (makes sense- the primary cooling system comes up to temperature much faster, and transfers heat into the oil when it's cold.)
I am not worried as street driving at this point will be longer cruises and romps in the mountains. I have a daily for the quick trips around town, especially with door bars in the way.
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