Oil temp takes a long time to come up - normal?

[kitcarbp]

Doug, I agree with Rick, these temps are to be expected in the ambients you ref.. There is alot to this topic, sorry this is long but thats why many modern engines use oil/water coolers (stacked plate type cooler) between oil filter and engine block), you want the oil to come up to temp fast as possible to limit engine wear (H2O build-up + acids, etc) get good mpg's, and then keep oil temps in the safe zone to extend oil life as long as possible. The mpg example is best served by example of Honda qualifying their modern 3.5L V6 on the EPA cycle using only 5-20W oils to reach their mpg corp. targets. Combined with better oil formulations we get the longer oil drain intervals these days as well. The "old school" air-oil coolers our Cobras run are best used (and was the best solution in the 60's) in racing at max hp conditions to work, if you want to run them for the "look" on the street, some use a cooler by-pass; manual or thermostatic so you can keep oil temps up in the normal range in cold climates. The 176F (80C) you mention as normal temp is a bit low in my opinion, I would want to see oil temp closer to 200F in winter and max of 225F in summer heat at highway rpms. If you run your car in the lower ambients at these lower (160-180F) oil temps you will "increase" engine wear if you dont run your oil in the 200-225F range as an example. But then if you change oil every 500 miles on these hobby cars, this wear can be minimized also. There are so few Cobras that run a ton of miles each year so you could argue its an academic point only. On the carb'd engines we also care about unburnt hydrocarbons (gas) in the oil contributing to cylinder wall wear over time, not a concern on modern EFI motors, another reason you want to keep the oil temps up on old school engines. My build is still too new to know, but if I ever want to add an engine oil cooler, the way I will go is the modern stacked plate water-oil type, they are reliable, cheap and will keep the avg. oil temp range in a more narrow window and I'll never even think about the oil temps, topic closed.

my 2cents

bill