Oil type and temp Questions (houston area)

Lug

College Station huh? You sure your car is not on fire?


Seriously, run your car for a few thousand mile before doing anything. I've seen several people say that after breakin, cars run a bit cooler and use less oil.

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Astrosfan

dawudih

MattP725

I'll let it sit for 5 min but really not much more unless I am checking for leaks or simply doing something else.

roy'sz

I wish I could do that but its in the 60's at night and it takes a lil while to go. Too bad they didn't have something similar to a cold weather package where you just plug it in and the oil warms up on its own. Something like 100 or 120 deg heaters.

MattP725

I don't think anyone knows when it "starts" to open and close... it is a 180deg thermostat so I think Mocal would try to convince you that it simply opens around 180. I have heard they are surprisingly accurate though. Assume that you always have partial flow and somewhere between 175 and 185 you have full flow.

Maybe in CA 60 degrees sounds cold but in NJ that is pretty damn warm lol. I think the point is that even when the oil is at 40 degrees you can still drive it, just be easy on the motor until it warms up that way you can be sure to have efficient lubrication. Normal driving on an ice cold engine won't result in failure or excess wear on a newer car, just keep it rational until the temps rise.

Those cold weather packages are "generally" on diesels because they need a higher starting temp to get the engine fired up. The Z wouldn't really get much benefit from them (plus who wants an outlet coming out of the front of the car).

ChrisSlicks

There is a 200F degree spring available from Mocal as an alternate to the 180F spring.

The Mocal always allows at least 10-20% flow to the cooler so in colder climates it can be impossible to get the oil temperature above 160F for months at a time unless you have long idle times. That is why many are using a block off plate for the winter.

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roy'sz

When I spoke to the guy at z1 he said that the thermo starts in the open position and makes its way towards closed? I looked at the adapter and the pin is seated way back, you can barely see it in its housing. It would be awesome to have a little more info on this just as a fyi ya know? The 60's is warm and thats right about this time of year but in late semtember we start getting the cold nights and where I live in cali it does get to the hih 30's at night. I also agree that it would be an ugly sight plugging your sports car into the wall hahahaha. My dad did come up with an interesting idea and that was to grab a AT radiator. Being that it is a cross flow design to run oil lines from the mocal to that. Not sure if it would work or not but it would shorten your warm up time by 75%, but not too sure about that one. I kinda like keepin my stuff seperate.

cossie1600

If I were to do over, I would have paid an extra $50 for the 200F spring.

fuct

damn $50 just to increase to 200F? yikes

soooo im starting to rethink my oil cooler needs. normal driving here in sugar land/houston area im at 210-220. then when i get "spirted" haha it reaches 240-250. then quickly goes back down to around the 220 mark. i dont plan on tracking the car anytime soon but this horrible heat doesnt look like its letting up soon either.

i understand 200-220 is a great temp to drive at hard, but im at that temp while i putt to wal-mart...:\

what do yall think?

200F mocal plate
25 row oil cooler

roy'sz

I got a 34. It takes a while to warm up. If you plan on modding your z then the 34 is worth the investment. My normal driving was 220 before the cooler and it would skyrocket to the 260's in no time. It would take forever to cool down even runnin the heater with the windows down lol. I didn't know that they had a 200f spring, anyone know the torque requirement for the fittings on the adapter? Im goin to be installing it this weekend or next and needed to know.

ChrisSlicks

If you're only getting to 240-250 occasionally I wouldn't do anything at all other than use good quality oil. If you're doing it every day then you might want to consider a cooler, the 25 row would be ample and would hold you to 220 max on the same kind of driving. Overcooling is just as harmful as overheating, although if you go big you can always add a block off if necessary.

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sonic370

if it helps you feel better. get the oil cooler. under normal driving conditions
imho if you only drive it on the street its not needed...

i live close to the houston area and during this past summer even on 100 degree days i would stay around the 200 degree mark.....

but when the mood strikes and you kick her in the rear every once in a while
it will get up in the 220 to 240 range. but seems to cool down pretty quick.

choose an oil and stick with it. ask 5 guys and you will get 5 different answers. i use mobil 1 5w30.. im at 27.000 miles and it doesn't burn a drop..

roy'sz

yeah sonic i run mobil1 also. My dad has a 350 and has 170000 on it with nothin but mobil1. it definitely is a great oil. My car runs hot, i mean damn hot without the cooler. just cruisin down the road with ambient temps at 105 it was 230 and just very little spirited driving got me to 250. Im talkin 30-45 seconds.

PaulZ370

Same situation here with the heat in my 370Z. however, I think the car was still new and the tolerances were still pretty tight. I was in Houston running around on the interstates there at an ambient of around 101-103, and I was spiking temps of 240-245 with just a little sprint of about 30-40 seconds just as you mentioned. I did install a 19 row oil cooler (not tracking the car), and my temps now are running in the 180-200 tops, even with high ambient temps and very spirited driving. The downside is with the morning mid fifties ambients, I can barely get the temps up to 180 for the 7 mile drive to work. I will need to blank the cooler off for the winter for sure now with cooler temps/maybe some freezing ambients as well.

I run Valvoline full synthetic 10W30 with a Purolator PureOne filter by the way.

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