Temperature Readings

[John Robinson]

Yesterday I drove the car 250 miles. The outside temperature was 90+. I pushed the gauges button and found that my oil temp was running about 225. Then I got into slow driving and the outside temp went to 97+ and the oil temp went to 237. Is this typical? :Twist I have reveiwed my Helms and nowhere that I can find does it mention what the normal operating temp of the oil or coolant should be. The engine coolant was running about 222 at the time. I need some input from you technical members on this.

 

[Nick S]

Well, it was 90 degrees and very humid here the other day. Sitting in traffic my oil temp was about 230 and so was my coolant. That was in stop and go (mostly stop) traffic with the AC off. With the AC on, the coolant temp in similar conditions tends to sit around 200 because the fans are constantly on. On a normal trip where I do less stopping and more going, the oil temp tends to sit between 200 and 210 and the coolant cycles between 200 and 225. I think the heat, traffic, and low gear high revving kept the oil temps higher than normal when I was driving in the heat the other day.

On the highway in 4th gear I have seen oil temps that are over 230. If I put the car into 5th or 6th, the temps usually go down 15 to 20 degrees. Cruising on the highway, coolant temps tend to stay around 200 almost exclusive of outside temperature.

Nick

 

[Rabbit]

Don't know about "93", but the "95" owners manual gives a very good explanation of all temps & how they are displayed & read.

 

[vader86]

Yes, thats quite normal for a car that has no cooling modifications.

But you may have the space between the condensor and radiator plugged up with road debris, that would affect temps by about 10 degrees if it was really plugged.

 

[6speeder]

http://www.theherd.com/articles/lt1_cool.html

 

[warren s]

Yes its normal. Check my website, click on the link for Simple C4 mods if you want to install a manual fan switch.