Oil Temp & Probe location?
 

Going to be adding a couple of new guages over the winter hiatus. Anyways, I'll be purchasing an oil temp guage (wideband coming). What I'm wondering is, where will the best place to mount the probe? I'm not really fond of drilling another hole in the pan, HST, seems to me I've heard of installing the probe in a tee for the oil pressure sender? That seems do-able. But what I'd really like to do, is check the temp of the oil on the return line from the Turbo, seems as if that would be really usefull info to monitor the oil tempt? Anyone who's done that, what kind of temps are you seeing on the return? What did you do?
TIA
Mike:)

Oil temperature probes have to be fully submersed in oil to get a good reading. Putting the probe in the turbo return line is not a good idea in my opinion because the return line doesn't flow enough oil Atleast not if you're using a large line as you should be. In order for the probe to give you a good reading you need to either put it in the block itself, in the pan, in a filter sandwich, or a sender unit T off the block. The probe needs to have a constant stream of oil flowing past it all the time. The pan is the easiest place to put it and alot of guys just replace their drain plug with the sending unit because then they don't have to tap the pan. You could do an oil filter relocation and put the probe in that. Or use FMs oil filter sandwich and run a probe that way. All kinds of options. Excluding the turbo drain. That oil is going to be so hot compared to the rest of the oil that it would be useless info. It goes right into the pan and mixes with the rest of the oil which is why the pan is a decent place to run the probe.

I drilled and tapped my drain plug. Seems to work pretty good, there might be more accurate places to mount.

Mine's the same way. Drilling and tapping a 1/8" NPT hole straight through the steel drain plug was a bitch, but it works.

I suspect that this is actually a fairly accurate place to measure oil temp. It's fairly near the pickup so that area probably sees good flow. It's also going to give you a good average temp, as opposed to just reading the hottest (post-turbo) or coldest (post-cooler) extreme in the engine. I have the inexpensive (90 degree sweep) autometer gauge, which goes from 100-250. This is how I judge when my engine has warmed up and is ready for action, basically when I see the needle start to move off the peg, indicating that the sump is up to 100 degrees.

cjernigan, I have FM's sandwich plate, and there is not a place on it for any kind of probe or take-off. Their relocation adapter does have a 1/8" NPT fitting on it (at the filter side) which may be suitable, if that fitting is mid-stream, rather than off at the end of its own passage.

My fault, sorry for the misinformation.

Joe
Wouldn't there be a problem with decreased ground clearance? I'm thinking that the probe is gonna be angled downward, won't it? BTW, what kind of high tempts are you seeing? I'd like to get the 300* guage.
TIA
mike

No problem with decreased ground clearnace. If makes the drain plug only a bit longer, doesn't really stick out too much. If you are hitting it you have big problems.

The only problem with the oil pan is that it probably cools off quite rapidly, maybe giving you a low reading.

Do an Ebay search for an oil filter sandwich plate - it's a billet aluminium plate that goes onto your existing oil filter location, and allows three extra connections with 1/8"NPT threads. About $35-$40USD.

Nice and clean - no drilling at all. You may have to loosen the intake plenum bracket bolts to allow fitment of your oil filter (retighten once filter installed - adds 10 mins to oil filter change)..

I'm using it for my oil temp gauge sender - works an absolute treat.

There's probably a link here somewhere in one of my threads - I asked a while back for options and got the solution I needed.....

I also use the filter sandwich plate which works fine and it is an easy install. In the past i have used a oil dipstick with sensor which sounds great in theorie, but because the dipstick housing is very close to the downpipe the temp readings where way off because of the heat of the downpipe.

Ground clearance hasn't been a problem for me, though granted I'm still at stock ride height. The oil drain bolt is oriented predominantly on the horizontal plane, with only a slight downward angle. The only real problem with it is that of course I have to remove the wire to change the oil. All that removing and installing has caused the sensor itself to develop a very slow oil leak- it doesn't actually drip onto the ground, but it's slightly moist.

Prior to installing the oil cooler (and the turbo) my high temps were sometimes in the 230-240 region. This is on a 1.6 (no factory cooler) and granted it only got this high when I was really flogging it- like driving Interstate 8 through the Imperial Mountains at 100 MPH in August. Normal driving usually put the oil at maybe 225.


After installing the cooler, my max temp is about 190, although on short trips in town it sometimes doesn't get above 160. This tells me that the thermostat is probably opening far too soon, cooling when it shouldn't be. I'm already running the smallest cooler I could find, so I'm thinking about maybe a partial block-off plate.

It has always been my opinion that the oil should run above 212 F and that 225 F would be a good place for keeping out any moisture.

Agreed- I'm just having difficulty striking that balance. No cooler = 240F, which I feel is too hot, especially since that was before I added the turbo. OTOH, with cooler = 160-190, which I agree is too cool with regard to keeping moisture out of the oil.

Anybody make an electronic thermostat valve? ;)

Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread! When I receive my Autometer temp guage, will see how long the probe is. I'm leaning towards going with the oil drain bolt location as mentioned by Joe. I could bring the plug in to work to have it drilled and taped.
Thanx
Mike:bigtu:

Sounds like a plan. Post a picture of the probe and finished product if you can.

Easiest way to do this would be to jam two nuts together on the bolts shank then chuck it into a lathe. it will drill nice and straight and allow you to power tap it :)

Santa was good! Brought me an Ulralight oil temp guage!:yippee: Now I'll have to mount that in with my recently aquired wideband and matching volt meter!
Mike:) :D

Joe- another option is to remove the cooler and just hook the two hoses together. That's essentially what old 911 coolers are- a hard line loop. It doesn't take much to cool oil- consider the OE coolers do it with hot engine coolant.