Oil Pressure after hitting up some twisties

[hal26]

Thanks so much for your excellent reply. My car is basically a garage queen taken out every week or so just for a bit of back road fun and very little highway. usually less than brief 90 mph pulls to get it warm and then lots of running thru the gears at lower than 4500 RPM. In this situation the A/C trick works well even in below outside 40 degree temps. Makes me feel good when I park it at 212 and don't have to worry about cooking the oil. I got into this habit from owning 2 turbo cars that never got as hot as my NA GT. I'm also an obsessive oil change guy. 4 Vettes (3 C5's and one C6) and one Scat Pack 392 as well as a a twin turbo 911 (992) and none of these ever exceeded 230...

Sponsored

 

[Junkyard Dog]

992 twin turbo 911 has oil cooler

C5 vettes I do not know, but they were not 500 horsepower and were not lugging 4000 pounds

C6 may have had an oil cooler if it was the Z51 or another performance package like that

 

[Junkyard Dog]

My car has an oil cooler from Ford, and I do not think I have ever seen 241.

I went through some twisties in track mode pushing the car at 90% and then about 80% as I got to a higher speed turn (public road, and I do not want to go to jail or put anybody in danger) and the inferred oil temp hit only 210°

I say I do not "think" I have seen 241 because I do not know what it hit on track - I was too busy trying to stay on the asphalt and watch the other cars and the flags and listen to my instructor. I will have to pay attention to this next time.


My CHT and oil temps tend to stay around 190-195° when cruising 84 mph on the interstate and driving around town.

 

[Paul's stable]

Yesterday, little group went and hit up some twisties north east of Houston. ambient temps around 61 degrees, fantastic day.

Now I'm assuming this is just something I've never noticed in all my previous mustangs because I didn't have live gauges on oil temp and oil pressure like I do in the 2024 gt. (Don't remember the 2011 having them)

So I have a non-pp car, aka no big oil cooler. It's something I want to upgrade because I do have the 3.55 diff gear, and autos with an upgraded diff gear tend to run higher oil temps.

That said, was a lot of 3-5th gear manual sport mode running these twisties, was a lot of fun. The hottest I saw the oil was 241 degrees. I wasn't "on it" as hard as i could be, just spirited fun driving, getting on it out of the turns. Mine will go from 210 to 240 degrees pretty quick which is surprising with 10q of oil.

When we rolled into the gas station, and idle for a min, my idle oil pressure was sitting at 16/17 when the oil temp was about 230 still. (driving its up like normal, cold starts it's 100psi)

Im running what the dealer is putting in there, motorcraft 5w-30, and this idle oil pressure just bothers me lol, like my water hose has 20psi of pressure.

Is this normal? I've watched videos about the oil pumps and LOL im just worried about this stuff, is this normal? am i just over obsessing about it?

If this was a fox body,even with some hot summer day hitting up twisties if it had 16/17 psi oil pressure I would be freaking out.

The little group...

...

What I have learned is that sites like this and others have turned everyone into worry warts. It like oil pump and crank sprockets a company selling these parts puts out a scary story now everyone insists you replace them. Yet I have not heard anyone in a S650 that has failed. According to the internet these forms should be full of them.

 

[Westphal]

I used to track my '87 Camaro years ago. It had a built 355 with about 400 hp and a Canton oil pan but no oil cooler. I only ran Mobil 1 synthetic oil and had a digital oil temperature gauge on the A-pillar gauge pod, along with a trans temp gauge. During a 20-minute session, oil rarely exceeded 260 degrees (or was it 280?) and I never had a problem with cooked oil. I had a big trans cooler up front and that kept the trans temp in check.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

My idle oil pressure once up to operating temperature is 36, but that was not 241° inferred oil temperature reading, either. It is around 190°, so I expect that the oil pressure at idle would be less at such a higher temperature.

 

[Frogdog1]

I think we tend to not let oil do it's job and just leave it alone other than changing it on time whatever that is.

 

[GeekGT5.0]

My local dealer will put in SEMI Synthetic oil unless you specify 100% FULL synthetic oil. I have found a way around the high oil temps. Turn on your A/C ideally before and during as well as after hard driving. The fan will come on and reduce your temp by at LEAST 10 degrees. I run my 6 speed up to around 235 degrees and then turn on the A/C on my way home. It cools down to 212 before I park it in my garage after easy driving for around 4 miles. Oil cooler not required! Central Texas area

My dealer does full synthetic 5w-30, i wouldn't run anything other. lol

I have the 3.55 diff gear, they tend to run a little higher oil temp just because it's going to be slightly higher rpms for the same given gear. I think an oil cooler is a must on my build just because of it. I mean i wouldn't give it up, it makes a pretty big difference in the way it accelerates. At the track the car will be about one car length ahead of a stock gt in the 1/8th mile, so it's significant.

 

[BrianJ77]

Oil temps can spike pretty quick with full throttle pulls. I've seen my temps jump from 195 to 209 with a good full throttle run from 2nd through 4th with a manual transmission. I have the PP and the temps drop pretty quick driving around 60-70 mph with that factory oil cooler (<5 minutes back to sub 200s). I've not yet seen temps above 215. The cooler makes a huge difference IMO.

 

[GeekGT5.0]

Also, oil at 241° is nothing to worry about.

Sorry if I did not mention that before.

Yeah I've since been told by...someone who i trust knows the coyote engines well that Ford's design and calibration (for Ford's 5w-30 full synthetic) is:

180-220°F is ideal and oil in stated viscosity
(nominal idle Oil Pressure [~20psi] )

220-245°F warm but acceptable (common if aggressive driving/or hot weather) oil starts to thin
(nominal idle Oil Pressure [~17psi] )

245-265°F Hot, track day, but have to watch out for thermal runaway
(260-265°F the gauge turns yellow)
(nominal idle Oil Pressure [~15psi] This is the lower limit of oil pressure)

265-280°F To hot, overheating, oil breakdown is accelerated
(270-280°F the calibration cuts power and gives dash warning of Oil Temp High or Engine over Temp)
(nominal idle Oil Pressure [~10-13psi] shut'er down )

Ford's factory calibration expects brief spikes into the 250°F ranges under aggressive driving and that if brief is ok. Sustained 260°F means you need to do something. Oil coolers, air flow, etc. If you track regularly, going to 5w-40 is safer with high temps.

After talking with him, i feel a lot better about it. I was running in the 230 range, and would touch 241°F when on it pretty hard. Just thought I'd throw this out there. Corrections welcome. I'll just call this the "unofficial" oil temp guide. LOL

 

[GeekGT5.0]

Oil temps can spike pretty quick with full throttle pulls. I've seen my temps jump from 195 to 209 with a good full throttle run from 2nd through 4th with a manual transmission. I have the PP and the temps drop pretty quick driving around 60-70 mph with that factory oil cooler (<5 minutes back to sub 200s). I've not yet seen temps above 215. The cooler makes a huge difference IMO.

Yeah you're the 2nd guy to tell me this with a PP car with the oil cooler that it's pretty hard to get it to the 240s with the oil cooler. Im for sure gonna do that upgrade. LOL

 

[GeekGT5.0]

My car has an oil cooler from Ford, and I do not think I have ever seen 241.

I went through some twisties in track mode pushing the car at 90% and then about 80% as I got to a higher speed turn (public road, and I do not want to go to jail or put anybody in danger) and the inferred oil temp hit only 210°

I say I do not "think" I have seen 241 because I do not know what it hit on track - I was too busy trying to stay on the asphalt and watch the other cars and the flags and listen to my instructor. I will have to pay attention to this next time.


My CHT and oil temps tend to stay around 190-195° when cruising 84 mph on the interstate and driving around town.

I'll be at 220-230 at 85 on the interstate in 75 degree ambient temps. I'm also going to be at a higher rpm than you with the 3.55 rear diff gear too. So it meakes sense. No cooler, and higher rpms...

 

[Junkyard Dog]

The Ford Racing cars (Dark Horse R) are up in the 270s 280s all the time. They have a large, upgraded aftermarket oil cool in front of the radiator and a custom dual pass radiator, in addition to ducting and permitted holes drilled all over the fan shroud until it looks like Swiss Cheese (the manual shows where to drill all of the holes and what size) for better airflow through the radiator.

 

[Cz_Ziemniak]

As others have stated, 10 psi idle is alright, but I know exactly how you feel, hahah.

I remember an old V12 XKE I had a lot of work in years ago, idle oil pressure dropped to around 8-10 PSI when at operating temp. That engine was basically done.

Same story with my Spitfire, had to replace the rod bearings because they were no good.

Modern cars use much thinner oils though, and 15 psi idle is perfectly normal considering you're idling at about 800 rpm.

The biggest concern, really, is pressure drop under hard cornering. Not sure how many sustained g's you have to pull in a corner to see pressure drops, but its always in the back of my mind.

Sponsored