Hi,

I was just wondering what temperatures you guys with engine oil temp gauges are seeing when you're pulling loads. I'm seeing around 210 *F empty with my sender at the oil filter head. I'll be pulling around 10,000 lbs through the Canadian Rockies next week, and I'm just checking to see when I should start getting concerned. I'm running Delo 400 5W40 synth.

Thanks

 

Thats normal. They all run between 190 and 215 depending on temp, load.. etc. NORMAL

 

I'm just wondering what is the max temp I should / could the oil get to?

 

Gnerally speaking, oil temp should be pretty close to water temp. Oil is heated by rpm's; heavy loads don't add a lot of heat to oil.

Synthetic oils are good to about 250*, with shorter bursts to 270*. Your oil is not truly a synthetic, so lower that by about 20*.

Duration really matters. If you run it up to 250* for 10-15 minutes, don't sweat it. But if it's up there for hours, change it.

 

Where would you install your 1/8 NPT probe for the oil temp?

 

"Where would you install your 1/8 NPT probe for the oil temp?"

I installed it in the spare plug on the oil filter housing. I have it "t'd" in with my FS supply.

 

Hmmm, well here's my experience from a trip this weekend.

Normally, my oil temperature stays between 218° and 222° depending how hard I'm running the truck. It stays here regardless of driving a half hour or 10 hours.

I just got back from a 2,000 mile trip to Rhode Island and back to TN. On the way back I was loaded to about 19,000 lbs total weight with truck and trailer. Ambient temp was around 82°. Later in the trip, I started running a little harder, getting into the throttle pretty good on the rolling hills. After about 20 minutes or so, my oil temp had climbed to 240° F and still rising.

I'm running 5w-40 Schaeffer's 9000 synthetic, but I decided to back off and let things cool down. Based on the settings I was running, I was probably rolling into 450 - 500 hp up the hills intermittantly. I've read this is the h.p. point that the oil sump capacity, cooling system capacity, etc starts to show its limits.

I'd recommend not running over about 350 - 400 hp and staying at 75 mph or under, and you should be fine for the journey!

I found Amsoil sells a 15w-40 full synthetic in the CI4 certification that I think I'm going to try next time.

As oil temp increased from 220 - 240+, I saw oil pressure drop from 59 psi to about 52 psi.

--Eric