Oil Temperature Sender

[Brett James-McCall]

Where do you all recommend putting one in a 302? In the block, sump, or in a take-off plate? Thanks

Brett

 

[Jack Houpe]

I would say the sump.

 

[Randy V]

Maybe I march to the beat of a different drummer - but - I put mine at the bottom of the sump if there is no external oil cooler or external filter mount. Otherwise, I take the temperature on the output side of the oil cooler to tell me what the temperature is of the oil I'm feeding my bearings..

When I say bottom of the sump - that's important ... If you place the temp probe near the top of the oil level - you'll find that the oil temp reading will be skewed by blow-by gasses in the crankcase.. That will REALLY open your eyes up and worry you half to death...

 

[Bob Putnam]

Conversely, I think that the temperature of the oil that leaves the bearings is a better indication of the condition of the bearings. (Oil temperature will rise dramatically when a bearing is failing because of the metal-to-metal friction.) Oil that is returning from the cooler is mostly a measure of the efficiency of the cooler. Ex-cooler temperatures will still indicate a bearing problem, but it is a lagging indicator.

 

[Grady]

I've chased this for a while, the sister car to mine P2125, also has a 427FE. I was wondering if my oil temp gauge was even working. Steve's was at the expected operating range. The temp gauge was changed to electric and the original was checked and found to be good. They both rarely moved off the peg at 40 degrees. I used an IR thermometer and read 180F on the top of the external oil cooler and 40 on the gauge. After weeks of talking we discovered that my sensor was in the sump, and Steve used a plug on his remote oil filter mount. When I get around to it, I will change the sensor location and remote mount the oil filter.
Regards
Grady