Oil Temperature Question

[Lakelord]

With all this cold weather about at the mo, I was surprised to see how cold the oil temp gets even in my nice snug garage.
I've got SPA gauges installed which read temperatures to within 1/10th degree which highlighted how cold the engine/oil gets at this time of year and I was wondering what the consensus is on warming up before a 'spirited' drive?
Water temp isn't a very good indication as I've noticed that will get up to normal running temp pretty quick while the oil is still relatively cold.
I don't want to do unnecessary damage to my cars internals so what's the verdict on how hot the engine oil should be before turning the taps on?

[V6GTO]

I've allways worked on the basis of double the time it takes the water to get up to temp.

M.

[JLSELAN]

A good indicator that the oil temp is high enough for spirited driving comes from checking the oil pressure reading.
You can be sure you are ready to go if the oil pressure reading is about 50 psi at ~3000 rpm.

[sean_goodman]

best bet is get oil temp and pressure guages then wait til the oil is at correct temp and pressure.

gonna treat myself to a set of defi when i can afford them

[georgeM400]

i usually start the engine and leave it to warm up for about 12-15mins before i move the car. this gets the oil temp to about 60 degrees. if i do have to move the car before the oil reaches this temp, i always keep the revs below 3000rpm.

[Biggriff]

There was much debate on this on the TVR Speed 6 forum and the general concensus was that the car should not be left idling, but driven off and put under a light load.

The reasons were that all components got a warming up including the gearbox oil.

[Lakelord]

sean_goodman said:

best bet is get oil temp and pressure guages then wait til the oil is at correct temp and pressure.

gonna treat myself to a set of defi when i can afford them

Yeah.. got them (http://www.spa-uk.co.uk/design/dualgauges.asp)
Just wondering what peoples thoughts were on what they should be reading before I start pressing on!

[alex s]

Lakelord said:

sean_goodman said:

best bet is get oil temp and pressure guages then wait til the oil is at correct temp and pressure.

gonna treat myself to a set of defi when i can afford them

Yeah.. got them (http://www.spa-uk.co.uk/design/dualgauges.asp)
Just wondering what peoples thoughts were on what they should be reading before I start pressing on!

Lakelord, is your car Natham's old car?

Alex

[RobP]

JLSELAN said:

A good indicator that the oil temp is high enough for spirited driving comes from checking the oil pressure reading.
You can be sure you are ready to go if the oil pressure reading is about 50 psi at ~3000 rpm.

Joel -that's good to hear. I noticed my oil-pressure was around 50psi at 3000rpm in 6th with oil temp around 70C, and I thought this might have been a tad low. Nice to hear it's normal.

[Biggriff]

Defi system link and display seems the way to go. That's what I would put in if I need to monitor my engine parameters.

see link:

http://www.defi-shop.com/product/dp/dp_top.html

[m12_nathan]

Yes it is my old car Alex (And it is Nathan) :P

Chose those gauges as I didn't fancy a hot oil feed to the back of the dash as with the factory one, and they fitted the standard apertures so no cutting involved. The do peak value recall and configurable warnings etc so are pretty good for the money. I wouldn't go Defi, if I were going to spend that much I would've done for a stack unit to replace the rev counter and would've got lap timing thrown in (ST8000 rings a bell).

[mgbond]

m12_nathan said:

Yes it is my old car Alex (And it is Nathan) :P

Chose those gauges as I didn't fancy a hot oil feed to the back of the dash as with the factory one, and they fitted the standard apertures so no cutting involved. The do peak value recall and configurable warnings etc so are pretty good for the money. I wouldn't go Defi, if I were going to spend that much I would've done for a stack unit to replace the rev counter and would've got lap timing thrown in (ST8000 rings a bell).

If you don't mind me asking, whats the cost for this and is it easy to do?

The one on the left I assume does water and oil, what does the one on the right do fuel...

Bondy

[Lakelord]

mgbond said:

If you don't mind me asking, whats the cost for this and is it easy to do?

The one on the left I assume does water and oil, what does the one on the right do fuel...

Bondy

I'll dig out the invoice later and post up.
The gauge on the left is Boost (Top) and Water Temp (Lower)
Gauge on right is Oil Pressure (Top) and Oil Temp (Lower)
As Nathan says, the guages are programmable to indicate temp or pressure over or under-reading etc
Pretty neets as it happens... Cheers Nathan !!

[sean_goodman]

Lakelord said:

mgbond said:

If you don't mind me asking, whats the cost for this and is it easy to do?

The one on the left I assume does water and oil, what does the one on the right do fuel...

Bondy

I'll dig out the invoice later and post up.
The gauge on the left is Boost (Top) and Water Temp (Lower)
Gauge on right is Oil Pressure (Top) and Oil Temp (Lower)
As Nathan says, the guages are programmable to indicate temp or pressure over or under-reading etc
Pretty neets as it happens... Cheers Nathan !!

from the web site it seems cost is £282. from memory thats about the same as the defi setup from eguages. not sure might be wrong.

[sean_goodman]

i was wrong!!!

have just priced up the defi set up from eguages and it comes out at £410.

at work at the moment so cant refresh my memory as to which gauges were removed to make way for the spa ones fitted

am i correct in thinking water temp and fuel level? if so what do you do about fuel level?

[m12_nathan]

Fuel was moved to the old boost gauge space.

[alex s]

sean_goodman said:

i was wrong!!!

have just priced up the defi set up from eguages and it comes out at £410.

at work at the moment so cant refresh my memory as to which gauges were removed to make way for the spa ones fitted

am i correct in thinking water temp and fuel level? if so what do you do about fuel level?

Nathan preplaced the boost and water temp gauges and moved the fuel gauge to the original boost gauge position(which makes a lot of sense to me)
Spa gauges are a straight fit where as the defi are a different size IIRC.

Lakelord if you can dig out the invoice I would be grateful if you could post up the info on the sender units used.

Alex

[sean_goodman]

alex s said:

sean_goodman said:

i was wrong!!!

have just priced up the defi set up from eguages and it comes out at £410.

at work at the moment so cant refresh my memory as to which gauges were removed to make way for the spa ones fitted

am i correct in thinking water temp and fuel level? if so what do you do about fuel level?

Nathan preplaced the boost and water temp gauges and moved the fuel gauge to the original boost gauge position(which makes a lot of sense to me)
Spa gauges are a straight fit where as the defi are a different size IIRC.

Lakelord if you can dig out the invoice I would be grateful if you could post up the info on the sender units used.

Alex

is this not correct for prices? says kits come complete with senders etc
http://www.spa-uk.co.uk/design/dualgauges.asp

[m12_nathan]

Yes they come with sensors, though I believe some of the original senders were used.

Plans did the work and IIRC wasn't especially cheap.

[obes]

Biggriff said:

Defi system link and display seems the way to go. That's what I would put in if I need to monitor my engine parameters.

see link:

http://www.defi-shop.com/product/dp/dp_top.html

Yep, have that in mine, love it.