R34 GT-T Oil Too Hot On The Track?

[Gw2]

So 2 years ago i took my stock r34 to winton, reached oil temps of 130c using 10w 40. I ended up buying a greddy oil cooler with thermostat. Took the car around sandown on a 30c sunny day, oil reaches 120c after about 3 hot laps, using 10w 40 penrite full synthetic.

The oil cooler has helped alot, but i think i am still running too hot, I'd like to atleast get in 4-5 laps before the oil reaches 120c. I should mention it has a koyorad radiator, and a greddy oil cooler. Oil temps are perfectly fine when driving around normally, usually sit around 80-85c, its only when i am racing around the track when i experience these high temps. What could i do to keep the temps down for longer? Thanks.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Gw2

[Leroy Peterson]

Have you checked to see if your oil thermostat is working correctly? Is it hooked up correctly?

[djr81]

Where did you site your oil cooler?

[Gw2]

Yes the thermostat is hooked up correctly. The oil cooler is situated behind my blitz intercooler and in front of my radiator.

[KiwiRS4T]

Siting of oil cooler is not so good. Do you have a good aftermarket oil temp gauge? What are your water temps doing? Is your engine  red hot and smoking when you stop?

Synthetic oil will survive high temps better

But oil temp looks a little high. Moving the cooler into some fresh air should help if your gauge is in fact accurate.

[Gw2]

31 minutes ago, KiwiRS4T said:

Siting of oil cooler is not so good. Do you have a good aftermarket oil temp gauge? What are your water temps doing? Is your engine  red hot and smoking when you stop?

Synthetic oil will survive high temps better

But oil temp looks a little high. Moving the cooler into some fresh air should help if your gauge is in fact accurate.

Yeah i was thinking the spot I've put it now is no good, but its where the instructions told me to mount it. I am using the factory oil temp gauge, it seems to be accurate. As for water temps, i am using the standard gauge in the speedo/cluster, it sits at halfway, have never seen it move even slightly a above half. Engine is not red hot or smoking when i stop.

Where do you guys think i should move the oil cooler to? I was thinking maybe where the factory intercooler sits? Which is on the passenger side of the bumper.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Gw2

[KiwiRS4T]

1 hour ago, Gw2 said:

I am using the factory oil temp gauge, it seems to be accurate. As for water temps, i am using the standard gauge in the speedo/cluster, it sits at halfway, have never seen it move even slightly a above half. Engine is not red hot or smoking when i stop.

 

I am picking your car is not too hot. If your water temp gauge is not registering hot then your oil temp gauge is probably not accurate especially if it is still the stocker. Check with one of those laser guns to see how hot things really are.

[Gw2]

15 minutes ago, KiwiRS4T said:

I am picking your car is not too hot. If your water temp gauge is not registering hot then your oil temp gauge is probably not accurate especially if it is still the stocker. Check with one of those laser guns to see how hot things really are.

I hope you are right. I was thinking maybe because its got a koyorad radiator, its keeping the coolant temps at a stable level, but the oil cooler, because of the spot its in, cant get enough cold air directly to it, so its coping heat from the radiator and intercooler, making it not as efficient as it should be?

Like i said, it only happens around the race track, everyday driving with a squirt here and there, the oil temp never goes past 80-85c

[Dobz]

120°c oil temp is no big deal as long as your water temps are under control. That being said do not rely on the factory water temp gauge, they are crap. I have a water temp warning that goes off at 98°, even when it goes off the factory gauge is still sitting at normal.

 

[GTSBoy]

Oil cooler should be behind the driver's side brake duct.  Clean air, short pipe runs.

Factory water temp gauge, like all factory water temp gauge, is set up to NOT move from centre over a very wide range of temperatures.  That's to stop people from having a panic attack every time they see it move upward.

The factory oil temp gauge's accuracy is anyone's guess.  FWIW, on my Neo, with no extra oil cooler and the stock water-oil heat exchanger working, my oil temp generally sits (on my aftermarket gauge) at 92°C or so......almost exactly the same as the coolant thermostat setting.

[Kinkstaah]

I had/have a 25 row oil cooler in a 34 that is mounted in the driver side but now moved to passenger side (as I have no piping on passenger side anymore).

My oil temps were under 100C (99, 98 etc) after 10 hot laps in a full session. Prior to that like you have seen, 130-150 in 2-3 hot laps was pretty common.

Unlike the above I'd wager if the oil gauge has gone from 150C to showing 120C then it's probably (somewhat?) accurate. I however had two oil temp sensors and a standalone water temp sensor. The water temp and oil temp do NOT coincide with one another even remotely before you have an oil cooler.

Pre oil cooler I would have water at 95-100 and oil at 150C. After the cooler they were much closer together. Having aftermarket gauges made me realise that "Eh if the water temp is OK then oil temp is OK too" is not accurate, at least for my car.

[Leroy Peterson]

Stock temp guage for anything... Well there's ya problem

[blah_blah]

Yeah get some aftermarket gauges for piece of mind.

I used to hit ~130c after 2 laps of Sandown when the car was stockish

Last time after an aftermarket oil cooler (drivers side duct) it would be about 105c from memory

[GTSBoy]

I wasn't suggesting that my car's oil temp would be same as coolant when doing laps.  Of course it would get hot without a cooler.  My point was that, as a baseline, driving on the street without the thrashing, the HX does a good job of keeping them very close together.  Then to compare that with what the OP was saying his pre-cooler water & oil temps were (which sounded wrong to me).

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I would only start to feel worried about oil temps of they're exceeding 140 degrees Celsius, anything under just go hard and dump your oil every 2nd track day OR every track day if you're going super hard.

I find the heat exchanger "can" be a nuisance as it pulls your water temperature up to when your oil gets hot.

[Kinkstaah]

Sorry, didn't specifically mean that GTSBoy was insinuating that water temp = oil temp, but it is seen enough doing a search that I thought I'd clarify. Doing normal driving or even moderately spirited driving it's pretty accurate though.

Track is another story and 140+ happens within 2 laps which can be a little bit shit if you're really going after the track. If moving the oil cooler means your oil temp is 100 instead of 120, I would argue its well worth doing, even if 120C oil is really probably going to be quite OK given oil quality in 2019.

But 100 is still better than 120 ?

[Gw2]

Ok that makes me more abit more confident now. I can get about 4 laps before it reaches 130c, so maybe ill push it all the way to 130c and then back off let it cool back down to 100c. 

Also i was suggested to maybe put a thermo fan on the oil cooler itself, do you guys think that is a viable option?

 

Id ideally like to move the oil cooler somewhere near the front bar, but id want to keep it as hidden as possible/stealth, theres heaps of room at the front drivers side, but i was thinking maybe where the stock intercooler sits, as its got those air holes on the bumper so air gets in nicely.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Gw2

[Kinkstaah]

You can put it there, but the lines would be much longer back to the oil block/filter, plus don't you have any intercooler pipes going through that region at all?

Almost every FMIC still uses at least one of those holes for piping...

There IS more room there though, I recently relocated mine for unrelated reasons and the washer bottle isn't in the way.

Thermo fan shouldn't really be needed for an oil cooler, because usually when your oil is hot you would/should/will have a huge amount of airflow slamming into the cooler, way more than any fan as you're probably at 7000rpm at 150+kmh. Your oil won't be overheating sitting in traffic idling which is where a thermo fan would have an advantage.

Unless of course your ducting/airflow path is really bad to the cooler and you need the extra help of a fan sucking/blowing accordingly but this really shouldn't be a problem when it comes to mounting an oil cooler to the front of a GTT.

I used mesh to cover the holes in the grill for FMIC/Oil coolers and you can barely see anything. Also stops larger debris smashing into things directly.

[Gw2]

30 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

You can put it there, but the lines would be much longer back to the oil block/filter, plus don't you have any intercooler pipes going through that region at all?

Almost every FMIC still uses at least one of those holes for piping...

There IS more room there though, I recently relocated mine for unrelated reasons and the washer bottle isn't in the way.

Thermo fan shouldn't really be needed for an oil cooler, because usually when your oil is hot you would/should/will have a huge amount of airflow slamming into the cooler, way more than any fan as you're probably at 7000rpm at 150+kmh. Your oil won't be overheating sitting in traffic idling which is where a thermo fan would have an advantage.

Unless of course your ducting/airflow path is really bad to the cooler and you need the extra help of a fan sucking/blowing accordingly but this really shouldn't be a problem when it comes to mounting an oil cooler to the front of a GTT.

I used mesh to cover the holes in the grill for FMIC/Oil coolers and you can barely see anything. Also stops larger debris smashing into things directly.

I like that idea, i reckon ill put it at the front of the bar, drivers side, paint the oil cooler black, as its a shiny light blue and sticks out like dogs balls, put some mesh in front of it to help protect it also. Thanks for that idea.