Oil temperature?

[Kirby Schrader]

Does thinner oil run cooler????
The answer Kirby doesn't want to hear:
Bigger or more oil cooler.
Lower redline.
Kirby can donate $ saved to my GT40 fund . . . . . (its a joke, don't tell him)

Yes, thinner oil runs cooler. I have proven that to myself time and again with my Pantera.... A close tolerance engine with thick oil runs hotter.

With respect to a bigger oil cooler... Ford ran the same thing, right?
Oh, yeah... right... they used a dry sump system.

Sigh...

It may be cheaper to donate to your GT40 fund, David. You're not in a hurry, right?


Kirby

 

[Kirby Schrader]

Kirby --

An Aviaid GT40 FE pan is about $500, and a 4-stage pump is about $1,000. Don't know if that's approaching 5 $'s for you but I think it was a good deal given the benefits to a $25,000 motor. Of course you need tank, hoses, etc. too. I use a $250 rectangular 10 qt Canton tank just because I can't stand the non-period look of a cylindrical tank. Holman will make you a repro tank for a few thousand... now there's your $$$$$.....but it's gorgeous.

John at Aviaid has a slick pump mount that goes where the oil filter used to be on an FE. The pump is readily accessible through the firewall opening, and any time you want you can slip the belt off and put a drill motor on the 7/16"-head screw on the pump sprocket to spin the pressure up. The only clearance issue might be the scavenge exit fitting which is on top of the pump right below the #5 header, but it's doable with normal 10 or 12AN bits. John assembles a special pump for FEs with short fourth stage so it just clears the FE motor mount at the back.

Well, I don't have an FE... It's an iron SVO block with B351 aluminum heads. Wait!!!! For the non-US folks, that's aluminium!
:laugh:

The last FE I worked on was my 390 '64 Ford when I was young. I forget how the oil filter mounts. Would that fit a Windsor?
My alternator is over there, too. I can see myself having to redesign and rearrange everything. Finding a place for the tank, etc. etc.

Thanks for the info! I shall start looking into it. As if I don't have enough to do... I inherited a Pantera racecar and I've been trying to get it going again after it sat doing nothing for three years....

Kirby

 

[Ron Earp]

Put a larger cooler on it, duct it well, and be done with it.

With my RCR T70, which saw mainly track use and a lot of it, we started out with oil temps at 250-275F for the first couple of outings. After we moved the oil cooler around, and made ducting so it was getting cool air in and through it, the oil temps dropped right where they should be, 220-225F. We also insulated the cooler from the radiant heat of the engine. That car would run 225F even on 95-100F days with session lengths as long as one hour. We experienced the same problem with the transaxle cooler, temps there were hitting the same or similar, but we moved that cooler as well, made sure it was getting cold air and had no problem.

Oil cooler placement and ducting, even ducts after the cooler, are key. We had the same experience on the pair of SCCA Mustangs we built. At first oil temps kept getting a bit higher than we liked, but we moved things a little, made sure air was getting into the cooler and out of it, now we run 215F all day, in any temps, in 1.5 hour races. The AN line adapter we use for the cooler does have a thermostat in it, the Lola did not.

 

[David in Durango]

Ron makes a good point - the air into the cooler will need an exit!

My V8 Miata will only cool really well if there is an exit for the air coming OUT of the radiator. I imagine this applies to the oil cooler as well.

 

[Jac Mac]

Put a larger cooler on it, duct it well, and be done with it.

Band Aid Mechanics... All the coolers in the world wont help if the problem ( temp rise ) is being caused by windage, you might lower the temp, but if the oil is still full of air bubbles from being bashed into submission by the crank etc it wont do its job...

 

[David in Durango]

Kirby,

thanks for the note about thinner oil - never would have guessed that.

The Pantera uses 20-50, but it never sees oil temps above about 190. Curious.

Guess I need to pay attention the the GT40 fund - maybe vitamins would make it grow????

cheers,

 

[Seymour Snerd]

Well, I don't have an FE... It's an iron SVO block with B351 aluminum heads. Wait!!!! For the non-US folks, that's aluminium!
:laugh:

The last FE I worked on was my 390 '64 Ford when I was young. I forget how the oil filter mounts. Would that fit a Windsor?
My alternator is over there, too. I can see myself having to redesign and rearrange everything. Finding a place for the tank, etc. etc.

Thanks for the info! I shall start looking into it. As if I don't have enough to do... I inherited a Pantera racecar and I've been trying to get it going again after it sat doing nothing for three years....

Kirby

Ooops. Somehow I thought you had an FE; the gorgeous stainless headers threw me off. Not sure about Windsor; looks like John's SBF pans plumb on the RHS but he has pump mounts for either side (same as BB Chevy of all things).