Trying to cool engine oil on 4.6 Westfield seight

[robinm]

Had a problem with high engine oil temp with my 4.6 250 bhp seight on recent trackday. After 2 or 3 laps oil temp was reaching 110 C and still rising, necessitating a return to the pits to cool down.

I am trying to find a solution and initially considered fitting some form of laminova oil to water cooler. After further consideration other possibilities have occured to me and I would be glad of anyones thoughts:

Maybe the overheating is due to insufficient flow through the existing oil cooler. Would a higher capacity pump be an option? The matrix itself is positioned behind the water radiator, maybe that is part of the problem? Oil pressure indicated on the 1996 TVR guage is quite low (about a quarter up the scale), is this normal?

Could heat build-up under the bonnet be the cause and should I introduce more vents - it already has 3 towards the windscreen area?

Will the laminova oil to water cooler work using a sandwich on the filter housing? Is it likely to further reduce the oil pressure?

Any comments and other ideas very welcome

I've posted this on the WSCC tech forum as well. Apologies to anyone reading it twice.

[dern]

I don't think 110 degrees is too hot is it?

Where is your sendor? Have you calibrated it with one of those IR heat guns to be sure that the gauge is reading correctly.

I had a virtually identical car to yours, didn't run an oil cooler at all and had no bonnet vents and didn't suffer from abnormal oil temperatures. My sendor was in the sump.

[robinm]

The engine oil temp generally runs at around an indicated 95C at normal road speeds. 110 is into the red and my worry was that it was still rising.

Will locate the sender and try to get it calibrated. Thanks for that.

[Shaun_E]

As above 110 isn't that bad - if it goes much higher though then you ought to look at your cooling. It won't help that the oil cooler is behind the rad - can you move it to in front? If you go the Laminova route then you have to be sure that your radiator can cope with the additional load being placed on it. Sandwich plate on filter housing should be fine. A laminova will likely drop the pressure a couple of PSI.

Edited by Shaun_E on Friday 10th August 11:25

[dern]

robinm said:

The engine oil temp generally runs at around an indicated 95C at normal road speeds. 110 is into the red and my worry was that it was still rising.

You've also got to bear in mind that 'red' is just some paint and may not be applicable for your engine at all. I'd ask on one of the v8 forums what the normal operating temperature for the oil is first and ensure that you're within that before spending any money on oil coolers as you may end up running with too cool oil which may damage the engine in a quest to please the guage.

I seem to recall doing some research on oil coolers when I got mine and found that many people were removing them because they were not needed. If that's the case and you find that you definitely are running too high a temperature then it may be possible that one of your oilways is blocked resulting in rising temps. It would be better to sort that out than try and mask the problem with an oil cooler.

Good luck.

Mark

[GreenV8S]

110C is just getting into the normal operating range, isn't it? Depending on the oil you might need to start cooling things down if it heads north of 140C but 110C wouldn't concern me at all.

[knighty]

Agree totally with Green V8s.....I work for a MAJOR motor manufacturer in the lubrication systems department, and I can confidenmtly tell you all cars are signed off to max oil temps of 140DegC for traditional mineral based oils.......synthetic oils are being signed off at 150DegC......and believe me they all go there when being pushed hard, particularly when heavy towing.

so stop being a tart and dont be afraid when oil gets above 100DegC!......if you go above 140 DegC, then yes, I agree you will need a cooler!......if you do fit a cooler, dont fit one thats too big and over cool it, you always want the oil around 100DegC minimum.......you can do this by taping over some of the cooler with gaffer tape to limit air flow.

[Steve Maund]

I have a 5L V8 Westfield, my oil never gets above 95c.
When I bout the engine from V8 Developments, they said that the oil will break down around 140c.
My water temp stays below 92c with the fan coming on at around 86-88c

[v8 jago]

I would think about putting some exhaust wrap on to keep the under bonnet temp down. Every bit helps.

[robinm]

Thanks for your comments. I agree 110 C itself is nothing to be alarmed about. Next time I'll continue for longer and see how high it wants to go.

I'm interested that Dern and Steve, with similar cars, have not had the same experience. No matter what, moving the oil cooler in front of the water rad sounds sensible.

Exhaust already well wrapped, but good thought.

Thanks again.

Edited by robinm on Saturday 11th August 13:10

[dern]

robinm said:

No matter what, moving the oil cooler in front of the water rad sounds sensible.

I'd only bother if you find you have a problem as you'll reduce the airflow getting to the water rad.