Oil temp question? Options

[torakki]

I finally got the '74 2.0L running well and went for a 20-to-30-minute drive. Temps were in the upper 80s and I'm not sure if the car was getting to hot.
Since there are no digits on the gage, I need to ask. I found a drawing of gages, so I think I'm in the 240 area. Not sure if the temp was still going to rise since I was back at home. The photo is from the passenger seat but from driver side, the "P" was mostly covered by the needle.
Am I still in the safe area? Thanks for any knowledge on this.

[mb911]

So I gonna stir the pot on this. What is a good average temperature? I have seen many different people say different things. Mine runs at hottest 190-200 but I am depending on a gauge and sender that has variable range of accuracy like everyone else. I saw post the other day from Charles Navarro stating that all air cooled engines should see 220 sustained in order to burn out moisture from the oil. A friend runs 240 on his 914-6 and he is a constant state of freaking out. I would think 250 should be max but now question that based on accuracy of the gauge is it really that hot?

[Superhawk996]

I saw post the other day from Charles Navarro stating that all air cooled engines should see 220 sustained in order to burn out moisture from the oil.

Charles is correct.

250 is not dangerously hot by any stretch. Even less so with modern synthetics.

Most of your modern water pumper daily drivers will be well over 205+ at sustained 70-80 mph highway speed. All air cooled motorcycles run way over 200F oil temps.

Air cooled engines are not water pumpers. They run hotter and so does the oil.

Constant source of amusement for me how people believe internet mythology and what daddy or grandpa told them based on early 20th century machinery. It doesn’t help that the Bruce Anderson book pushed the 180F mythology.

Oil temps run much hotter than they did back in the “good ol’ days of V8s everywhere when most engines were due for a rebuild in less than 100k miles. Yet . . . Today, no one is surprised when a modern engine goes 200k miles running hotter oil temps. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

Let me stir the pot a little more (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif)

Porsche set the red “danger” redline at 300F. Do folks think VW & Porsche didn’t know what they were doing based off durability and dyno testing? And remember that redline was set in the days of conventional Dino oil. Not saying anyone should run at 300F continuously but even 300F isn’t a big deal for synthetic. 300F is a very reasonable redline.