914 V8 oil temps on track car, feedback requested Options

[dlee1967]

I was seeing what I thought to be rather high oil temps on my street/track 305 Chevy powered 914. About 220 degrees-spikes to 240. Now that I installed a new 350, I've added an external oil cooler with thermostatic fan to help the situation, but have not hammered the car yet as we are still breaking it in.

What oil temps are the other V8 guys seeing? I haven't found it necessary to put an external cooler on the wife's street car, but I believe I am pushing it with the track car. My only frame of reference in an old A1 GTI that used to see this same range.

Any feedback?

David Lee in Houston, TX

[dlee1967]

Joe, I thank you for your lengthy reply. My motor has less than 5 hours on it now. It is a 350 (40 over late block) with 292 non roller cam, hydr lifters, larger stainless intake and exhaust valves in early cast heads and roller tip rockers. It is built to produce 360 hp, but I have not yet dynoed the unit. I take great care in selecting proven parts and always work on the conservative side. The entire engine has ARP hardware and the Canton road race pan and matching pickup was chosen for the G loads I will see on the track. I run a 4160 Holley with Eldebrock Performer manifold. Basic....and simple to get right. Also at this time I run a HEI with very conservative advance numbers.

Your points are all good ones, but not overlooked by me on this project. I use the RH radiator setup with a 160 degree high flow thermostat and this keeps the water temp at about 190 on a hot day. (remember, I am in Houston....it is 100 today on my side of town) I can see spikes of about 205 on the track, but it cools back down when I pull off. This is an autocross, DE and time trial car that never sees more than about 5 laps at a time.

I still have not seen a reply with some hard numbers. Does anyone monitor their oil temps on a V8 car? There seem to be a number of people looking the other way on this topic. You might be suprised to see the results if you check your temps, even on a street only car.

I suspect that my Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate is hurting my flow a bit and effecting the oil pressure readings. I will pull it out today and do a radius job on the inlet and outlet ports. That has helped me a bit on another project.

I feel that your idea of anything over 300 hp needing an oil cooler is a fair one, but if your temps are under control, why bother? 220-240 is not unheard of when running SCCA IT VW GTIs, but I am inexperienced with V8s. My Solo I Mini Cooper used to see 225 degrees on the track, but never went any higher. Maybe someone will chime in with real numbers from their cars.

To answer your request for pictures........I will hold off on sharing these until the MUSR 7 pics are in. I prefer to show in race mode rather than those in the driveway.

David Lee