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

[Brett W]

How much oil are you running in the pan? If you are running more than five quarts you need to drain some oil. Not only will that help HP it will also drop your oil temps. Just because you can put seven quarts of oil in the pan doesn't mean you need to. All that does it take longer to get up to operating temp. The Chevy oiling system is not junk like the Fords.

A stock blueprinted Z28 oil pump will pump 9gal of oil per minute. The loosest engines I have seen running wetsump systems only required 8gpm. Now why do you feel that your engine needs more oil volume? All you are doing is wasteing HP and creating heat.

Also the safe rule for oil pressure is 10psi/1000rpms. That is the old standby. The new rules are 10psi/100HP. I would stick to the old rule for your street motor.

Oil temps should be reaching 230deg. That is a comfortable oil temp for a race car. I would also go to synthetic after you finish your break in. If the temps spike to over 260 you should be worried but you will be safe up until that point in limited stints.