Engine oil Temp
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Tuned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
From: Boulder City, Nevada
Engine oil Temp
I just recently completed a trip to Sequioa National Park from Las Vegas pulling a 11,000 lb fifth wheel with my stock 250. Outside temperture was around 100 degrees and I climbed some pretty big hills (6,000 ft). My water temp gauge maxed at 130 but my oil temp gauge went up to 260 a few times. On my last truck (a gasser) oil temp would also run this hot pulling a heavy load. None of my other gauges ran hot. Is this ok? I also lost about a quart and a half of coolant during the trip. Otherwise things were fine. I'm thinking about installing a rear axle gauge too as it got too hot to touch.
Randy
Randy
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
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From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
If I remember correctly and hopefully the other Evan is correct(my name is Evan as well for those wondering why I stated that) and that you really meant to say 230, then I believe that your Oil Temp would say 260(there is usuall a 25-30 degree difference between the two from what I was told, if that is correct). 230 is pretty high, I believe that is where the water losses it's cooling efficiency(or is pretty close to it, the higher up you are though the less that temperature has to be(if I remember my engineering correctly, haven't had Ag Engineering for a long while)). I would have to say all in all that is too hot and I might want to switch to another type of coolant(they have a waterless one now that might work really well I have been looking into those).
FTE Legend
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 65,938
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From: Millersville, MD
Randy: WOW...did you hear your cooling fan come on? I returned recently from a 10k mile trip from east coast to west coast with my 250 and at times it got hot, but never THAT hot. Going up the grapevine in Calif, it started to get hot, but as soon as the cooling fan came on, it started right back down. In Montana, I had to slow to 45-50 getting over one of the Continental Divide peaks to keep the temp down. Hopefully, you too slowed to keep temps down. I never lost any coolent either. Have you have the recall done on the coolent bottle?
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Tuned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 338
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From: Boulder City, Nevada
Yes I meant to say 230 on the water temp. I will get the diesel water wetter as 10 degrees cooler would put me right where I want to be althrough the oil is still a little too hot for me.
Randy
Randy
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
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From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,708
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From: Circle City
I'm curious about 'gauge redundancy'.
I find there is 4 to 5 gauge location that I would deem "normal" for these diesel trucks. Any more and the interior looks,... well, over laden with gauges.
If a person has an aftermarket temp gauge for the water, is an oil temp gauge necessary? or vice versa?
And if a person has to make a choice between the two listed , which would be more valuable? oil or water?
I understand from experience that the factory dash temp shows a needle for water but it only seems to offer a nebulous reading.
just wondering
I find there is 4 to 5 gauge location that I would deem "normal" for these diesel trucks. Any more and the interior looks,... well, over laden with gauges.
If a person has an aftermarket temp gauge for the water, is an oil temp gauge necessary? or vice versa?
And if a person has to make a choice between the two listed , which would be more valuable? oil or water?
I understand from experience that the factory dash temp shows a needle for water but it only seems to offer a nebulous reading.
just wondering
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Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
There are some that say oil for a diesel is more important then water, given that coming from a factory mainstreaming is better and it's easier and more cost effective to just do one gauge for all vehicles(in this case water temp, as supposedly that would be a good thing to monitor for all vehicles). I chose water temp, I understand the argument for oil temp, but in my mind it still fits better with water temp. I would suggest getting atleast one, if you want to make sure everything is in sync then you would need both, but I would atleast suggest one of those two, which ever one that you want.
Postmaster
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,743
Likes: 3
From: Peoria, IL
Coolant temp I believe will rise faster than oil temp, but once up to operating temperatures the oil temp will be a little higher. I would probably go with an oil temp gauge first if I was only adding one, as that will help you spot oil cooler issues if one comes up. If you only had a coolant temp gauge and the oil cooler failed your coolant temps would not go up to let you know about it (I believe others here have mentioned if oil temp is more than 30°F above coolant temp you probably have an oil cooler issue).
I personally have the MSD Dashhawk wich simply plugs into the OBD-II port and allows you to monitor coolant, oil, and trans temps in the 05-up trucks right now along with other parameters. The latest software isn't cooperating with the 03-04 6.0L trucks, but they should have that fixed within the next couple weeks. For more info on the MSD Dashhawk check out my thread here.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...e-display.html
I personally have the MSD Dashhawk wich simply plugs into the OBD-II port and allows you to monitor coolant, oil, and trans temps in the 05-up trucks right now along with other parameters. The latest software isn't cooperating with the 03-04 6.0L trucks, but they should have that fixed within the next couple weeks. For more info on the MSD Dashhawk check out my thread here.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...e-display.html
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
Originally Posted by Beerstalker
I personally have the MSD Dashhawk wich simply plugs into the OBD-II port and allows you to monitor coolant, oil, and trans temps in the 05-up trucks right now along with other parameters.
Postmaster
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,743
Likes: 3
From: Peoria, IL
I believe that the factory sensors are accurate, they are just placed in a different position so the readings are going to be a little different. The voltage reading is taken at the computer so it has to go through a lot of wiring before it gets there which I believe is what causes the slightly lower reading. I believe that Ford just dumbed down the gauge readings in the instrument panel because they didn't want to deal with a bunch of people coming in complaining that their truck was getting too hot when it started getting toward the top of the normal range. I know in some other vehicles (older trucks) Ford actually installed a resistor in the gauge cluster to dumb down the gauge readings because of similar complaints. If you read around you can find threads about people getting different trans temp readings because they installed thier probe in different locations. I think if you know where the reading is bieng taken, and what the safe reading levels are at that location you will be fine.
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
Originally Posted by Beerstalker
I believe that the factory sensors are accurate, they are just placed in a different position so the readings are going to be a little different. The voltage reading is taken at the computer so it has to go through a lot of wiring before it gets there which I believe is what causes the slightly lower reading. I believe that Ford just dumbed down the gauge readings in the instrument panel because they didn't want to deal with a bunch of people coming in complaining that their truck was getting too hot when it started getting toward the top of the normal range. I know in some other vehicles (older trucks) Ford actually installed a resistor in the gauge cluster to dumb down the gauge readings because of similar complaints. If you read around you can find threads about people getting different trans temp readings because they installed thier probe in different locations. I think if you know where the reading is bieng taken, and what the safe reading levels are at that location you will be fine.
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,154
Likes: 2
Originally Posted by Benchwrench
I'm curious about 'gauge redundancy'.
I find there is 4 to 5 gauge location that I would deem "normal" for these diesel trucks. Any more and the interior looks,... well, over laden with gauges.
If a person has an aftermarket temp gauge for the water, is an oil temp gauge necessary? or vice versa?
And if a person has to make a choice between the two listed , which would be more valuable? oil or water?
I understand from experience that the factory dash temp shows a needle for water but it only seems to offer a nebulous reading.
just wondering
I find there is 4 to 5 gauge location that I would deem "normal" for these diesel trucks. Any more and the interior looks,... well, over laden with gauges.
If a person has an aftermarket temp gauge for the water, is an oil temp gauge necessary? or vice versa?
And if a person has to make a choice between the two listed , which would be more valuable? oil or water?
I understand from experience that the factory dash temp shows a needle for water but it only seems to offer a nebulous reading.
just wondering
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/637661-gauge.html
Thread Starter
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Tuned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
From: Boulder City, Nevada
I now have six gauges in my truck. Three on a pod and three above the mirror. They look pretty cool especially at night. I would reccomend water temperture over oil temp as coolant problems are more common on these trucks. I now feel that the tranny gauge would be one to drop as these tranny's have an excellent cooling system and never get very hot. My tranny max temp towing a load has never went higher than 190 degrees. The rear axle will run pretty hot going up or downhill if you are using the engine as a brake.
Randy
Randy