Oil Thermostat

[BDR561]

180 degree or 200 degree?

[CSCHWER]

If those are the only 2 choices, I'll vote for 200 degrees.

[jwoodard]

From my research, you want your oil temperature to get above 212 to boil out any water and other contaminants. Canton makes a nice thermostat that opens at 212.

[bobcowan]

Not exctly true. Water will vaporize at a much lower temperature. Otherwise your kitchen floor would never be dry. It just takes longer at the lower temps.

It's well known that oil has a proper operating range. That range depends on additives, dtergents, magic formulas, etc. You can easily find information about max temp. But there's not a lot of solid information telling us what the minimum temp is. It seems to be generally accepted that 180* is minimum operating temp. Although I wouldn't think that 212* is out of line, either.

Keep in mind that not matter what the thermostat is, most street cars with a cooler will have a tough time getting the oil above 180* in routine driving. That's because the "closed" thermostat always passes about 10% of the oil through the cooler. In the winter, I cover mine with clear duct tape so it gets warm enough. Otherwise it never gets close to 180*. If I was industrious enough, I'd make a fancy cover for it out of Lexan or something.

[jwoodard]

Not trying to get into a peeing contest, but water evaporates off your kitchen floor because it's in an open environment and the relative humidity is less than
100 %. Temperature plays a role in this also, but to what degree I don't really know. The oiling system in an engine is closed and not exposed to the outside environment . To test this, put some water in a jar and close it tightly. The water won't vaporize. The same for the inside of your engine. Thus, you do need to get the oil up to 212 degrees to boil off any water and other contaminants.

[BDR561]

Who stocks the Canton at the best $$? The MoCal units (10AN) are on back order.

[jwoodard]

Order direct from Canton. Here's a link: http://www.cantonracingproducts.com/...ermostats.html

[bobcowan]

If your oiling system/crank case is truly a closed system, the water will vaporize but has nowhere to go. It would just continue to collect. Since that doesn't happen, it's not a closed system.

[RedBarchetta]

Hence why we have breathers on the valve covers?

-Dean

[bobcowan]

Exactly! As the water vaporizes it increases the internal crank case pressures, and all that vapor needs a place to go.

[RedBarchetta]

But to Jim's point, you do need for the oil to get up to a certain temp before it's hot enough to "boil out" the contaminants and other by-products that build-up in the oil itself (mostly as a result of internal combustion). And that is why he (and I) favor the Canton unit...it assures you of that without allowing the oil to get too hot.

I would also further agree that getting oil to that 212 degree level in these cars is difficult (at best) on cooler days. At least with ANY thermostat we can all agree that recirculating 90+% of the oil back thru a warming engine is better than 0%.

-Dean

[jwoodard]

OK Bob, you are correct, but have to agree it's a bit different than the kitchen floor.