ERA 753 - Final Assembly in Progress

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Which begs the question....... Fred, on the hottest days of the year were you ever able to get your oil temp up to, say, 200 degrees (figuring that maybe your cooler shaved off 15 degrees)? You can probably tell, I'm wondering if the Canton will ever open up at all.

On hot days, I saw oil temps at about 70 C (160 F) during normal street driving. This was with the cooler full on all the time and the motor not being pushed hard except for relatively limited bursts. It will be interesting to see what temperature the oil will get to with the thermostat installed during warm weather but I will have to wait until the warm weather comes back next year. Honestly, if the cooler does not come into the circuit unless I am pushing the motor for extended periods, that is not a bad thing. I also suspect that I will see it come in during extended idle situations in the summer. My test the other night was in 50 degree F air and I saw oil temps of 175 F while alternating between short 2000 RPM operation and idle at rest at rest. On a 90 degree F day in the summer, I would expect to get pretty close to the opening point of the thermostat. Also note that this unit constantly circulates about 10% of the engine's oil flow through the cooler and will increase to 100% as the oil temperature nears the 215 F point. This means that the cooler will be used only when the motor sees extended high RPM operation such as in track conditions in warmer weather which is exactly what I want.

I am planning to drive the car for an extended period on the street. The air temperature should be around 55 - 60 F so it will be interesting to see what my oil temperatures look like in those conditions.


- Fred