R32 Gt-R Oil Temp Gauge - What Should It Read?

[mjtown]

Hi all,

Pop quiz - what should the oil temperature gauge on an R32 GT-R read?

Mine sits at the bottom (70 degrees) all of the time. Is this normal or abnormal? If it's not right, where should I start looking for the fault?

Cheers!

Mike T

[Moodles2]

Probably not working, they aren't known for their accuracy anyway, it should read the approx same temperature as the coolant temp (-/+ 5C) because oil and water both go through the oil/water separator (factory oil warmer/cooler). You should be seeing the needle starting to rise above 70C about 10 minutes into a trip.

I can think of 4 things it could be.

#1 Gauge isn't working

#2 Oil temp sensor isn't working (might work with a good cleanout)

#3 The wiring between the above 2 is damaged somewhere

#4 Thermostat is stuck open or you have a Nismo thermostat (opens at 62C) which isn't allowing the coolant (and oil because of the oil/water separator) to get up to temp

[mjtown]

Cool - thanks! I hadn't thought of the relationship between the oil and water temperature.

On a related note then, i'm amazed at how quickly the water temperature gets up to the centre of that gauge's range. It's only a minute or so, two at the most and then it's at operating temperature. It then remains there solid as a rock.

Again, is this normal RB26DETT behaviour? To the best of my knowledge it's an unmolested stock standard engine (R32 V-Spec... so it should be stock) with only 67,000 on the clock.

Apologies if all of this is a bit 'noob'ish' - I've never owned a Nissan RB engine before. I'm also not a mechanic (I'm a construction professional).

[Moodles2]

Middle of the coolant temp gauge means nothing on GTR clusters. It can be anything from 50C to 90C, the needle doesn't start going towards red till well over 120C.

[MrStabby]

Mine sits at 70 when warm, always. I use that as the "its ok to go hard now" mark, as you know the motor is properly up to temp (unlike the water temp gauge). On track days i saw it go as high as 110 before i got an oil cooler.

[mjtown]

Cool... Did you use a Nissan cooler, or did you go aftemarket?

Coolant temp wise, does yours get up to temperature really quickly?

[Moodles2]

I have an aftermarket oil cooler which is controlled by a thermostat, but I still have the factory oil warmer/cooler fitted. Once the coolant is fully up to temp (85C) takes about 15mins of driving in summer, or 20+mins in winter, my oil will sit on approx 85C (factory gauge). But the oil temp always lags behind the coolant temp by about 5C, if my coolant temp is 75C for example, my oil temp will be 70C (which I'm assuming is the work of the factory oil warmer matching the oil temp to the coolant temp)

[MrStabby]

Cool... Did you use a Nissan cooler, or did you go aftemarket?

Coolant temp wise, does yours get up to temperature really quickly?

I have the factory nissan oil/coolant heat exchanger in place, and an HKS kit with filter relocator.

Re: coolant, the gauge gets to the gauge midpoint quickly - but remember what moodles said about that.

[mjtown]

Great stuff - thanks guys. You've pretty much sorted it out for me.

Btw - the oil temp gauge is now working. It was an electrical connectivity issue.

[BuuBox]

The oil at 70 degrees seems a little cold.

Mine is stable around the 90 degree mark after a thermostat change (the old one was stuck open).

[mjtown]

Mine seems to be fairly settled at an average of 75-85 degrees now that it is connected properly.

[30TRB]

Ok question, my gauge isn't working at all, where is the sensor located maybe the wire has fallen off or something.

[30TRB]

Ok question, my gauge isn't working at all, where is the sensor located maybe the wire has fallen off or something.

[mjtown]

Under the intake plenum

[30TRB]

Under the intake plenum

Like where the actual oil pressure sender is ?

[mjtown]

Yeah, a guy that I know who has a lot of experience with RB's got his hands down there and made sure that everything was connected firmly. Hey presto! It worked!