Low Oil Temperature Question
 

Guys,

I got a SC'd 370z. 479hp to the wheels. Oil Cooler. Daily Driver.

The issue is the oil temperature is under 180 most of my driving. It's 2 miles to work. It's 4 miles to church. I barely ever do a long highway drive. So most of the time I'm under 180 degrees on the oil temp. Not only that but I tend to beat on the car on the way to work (because idiots in my way) but at that point im barely at 140.

I know which oil is highly subjective. But does anyone have any logical reasons why to choose one type of oil for my application over the OEM ester? Such as get a 0w weight instead of a 5w weight because my car is always cold?

Id just stop beating on it when its cold. Not a good idea at all. If you want to have fun take the car for a real drive.

What about ways to get it to warm up quicker? I could put a plate in front of the oil cooler and just remove it when I actually need cooling or something.

Yea you could do that however if you are only driving 2-4 miles and not letting the car warm up for a while before its still not going to come up to operating temperature.

Only thing I can think of is Thermostatic plate.

This will yield the same results. The oil can only heat up so fast, a thermostatic plate will just eliminate having to put on or remove the blocker plate.

Yes but its less oil to heat which should be faster? It would only open up if the oil hits a set temp. Or at least that's how i thought it works.

Yea I am pretty sure how that works however its not that much extra oil. Don't think it would make that big of a difference compared to a block off plate.

Sounds like the OP needs a oil heater for his kind of driving. :rofl2:

Mine takes about 10 minutes to get to operating temperature and I have a thermostatic sandwich plate. I don't spool the turbo or go above 3krpms until the car is at least 170-175.

A thermo-plate may help your situation but, as TerribleONE says, it takes a while for the oil to warm up. 2-4 miles just ain't far enough to get the engine warmed up good.

You don't have to baby a modern engine with modern oil when it's cold but you don't want to be going WOT until it warms up, either.

The difference in the amount of oil is not that important. The thermo-plate keeps most of the oil away from the heat exchanger until the oil warms up. This means there is less cooling going on until the thermo valve opens up.

Add 20 degrees to the oil temp. The temp is taken after the oil cooler. I have been running at around 165F on the drive in to work on cold days. That would be 185 out of the motor. I don't worry about it. I run 5W30 synthetic.

I don't see why you can't just let it warm up. I park mine in the garage and give it about 10 minutes of warm up time. I'm N/A and I stay below 4k RPMs until I get to 180* oil temp.

Car needs a longer run to get it to operating temp. Figure at least 5-6 miles.

If temps never get above 180 DegF to make sure water/cr4p in the oil boils off.

Take the car for a 20 mile run once per week and your car will say "thank you"

OP needs a Thermostatic plate if he can't get over 140F when it's in the mid 40s to 60s. I have no problems heating my NA oil up to 180. Winter time I still install a partial block off plate because the thermostatic plate doesn't completely, nor should it, close. I suppose you can install a complete block off plate till it gets hot out again.

My commute is 8 minutes. Your warm-up time of 10 min is more than my entire commute lol. I guess I need a remote start.

I didn't even think of that..

Since we're on this topic what is an ideal operating temp for the oil....based on what I have read is it 180*?

Depends on the oil. And that question is a black hole. Search Bob is the Oil Guy forums.

The 180 temp is typically considered the minimum for being completely warm. The ideal operating temp is likely around 200 or so. But I'm no expert.

All of this. You want the oil hot enough to evaporate out the condensation in it. Too cold is more of an issue than too hot these days, since modern synthetics are good up to 300 or so. Not that you'd ever want to see those kind of temps, but the car won't spontaneously combust at 250.

The design temp for most motors and oils is 212F or 100C. +-10% is perfectly fine, +20% isn't good but isn't terrible; but -20% and +-30% is bad and you should think about using a different viscosity.

For reference:
http://www.le-pilote-automobile.com/...co_vs_temp.jpg

The difference between oils is mostly why I was asking. I know we don't have to use the 5w30 ester oil from the dealer. However, will the ester help me do less damage since my engine is colder? or will a 0w weight? Or will anything for that matter?

Unless you are talking very cold (below about 10F or so), the type of oil or a lower-than-spec viscosity isn't going to make much difference in a DD. Don't worry about lower viscosity if you live south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Is this true for all adapter plate setups? I run a Z1 34 row oil cooler, and it's connected via thermostatic plate. The cooler is blocked off, I ran it for about 20 mins on the highway in 34* ambient temp, and it barely got to 170F. So you're saying the motor is seeing 185-190F?

Yeap, the oil temp is measured after it comes back from the cooler/thermostatic plate.

Cool, thanks!