QUOTE(McMark @ May 28 2018, 08:34 AM)
That temp gauge in the valve cover area seems unreliable to me. I know oil can collect up there, especially at sustained high RPM, but I'm doubtful it's 100% submerged in oil all the time. And that's a terribly inaccurate way to measure oil temp. It'd work for MicroSquirt as an indicator of when the engine is warmed up, but I wouldn't trust those numbers to accurately reflect actual oil temp. The IR thermometer is a similar problem. You're measuring the metal, not the oil. Those aren't the same.
Try warming up the oil with a drive, then pull the dipstick and IR measure the end that was in the oil. It'll probably drop temp quickly, so you'll have to be fast about it. I bet that reading is much higher than in the valve cover.
Agree. It is not intended to measure oil temp just a warm up value for MicroSquirt. But for comparison purposes it provides a reasonable level of measurement to say the oil temp is closer to 190 F than to the meltdown temp indicated by the oil temp gauge. This combined with the IR says that then engine is operating closer to normal than a overheating condition.