TravisJB Journal

wstar

Great video

So back on the oil temps thing: I'm still driving on the street mostly (for now anyways, although hopefully I can hit some track stuff later), so obviously I'm not heating up the engine as much as you do on the track. I'm running Stillen's cooler plus a 1-qt spacer on the oil pan from AAM for the moment (which also spaces down the oil pickup, so in theory it's going to help prevent loss of oil pickup on a hard corner too).

Anyways, you have any thoughts on what's "too cold" for hard driving? I'm mostly staying in the 190-220 range now even in aggressive street conditions, but on highway night drives at high speed, my oil temps are sucking down to 175-180 when cruising due to the lower ambient temps and high airflow to the cooler. I'm starting to wonder if that's too cold and the oil would be better off a little hotter in that scenario (not that it matters when I'm actually just cruising, but it might matter when I get back on the gas/revs hard at those temps). Keep in mind we're nearing the peak of TX summer heat, so these temps will probably drop substantially in the winter.

I'm planning to put a thermo plate in on my next oil change anyways, which should at least keep the floor at 180. I'm not even really sure how these plates are specified anyways. Is 180 when the valve starts opening, or when it becomes fully open?

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