Oil Temp Sensor Location?

Decided to add and oil temp sensor after reading some things on here about partially filled blocks on the street....My idea was to add a T on the back galley where the oil pressure line is hooked up. Well I did that and it wasn't reading correctly, so it dawned on me that oil would not be moving by the sensor so it would likely just be the static oil. Duh. Anyway, I looked at the instructions and they are talking about installing it in the oil pan, which I prefer not to do...So I was thinking since the engine has Indy Heads, maybe it could be installed in conjunction with the external oiling on the back of the heads. Has anyone done this? I was thinking using a T on both oiling galley feeds with a line going to each head off and one of the T's would have the oil temp sensor and the other would have the oil pressure sensor. Any ideas? My other concern was would this mess with the oil pressure reading as it wouldn't be deadheaded in his new configuration?

Thanks in advance!

in an A body and a sb I mounted mine at the rear close to the bottom of the pan. iv remounted it in a BB pan, same location.

Oil pan drain plug.

Pan

I'm not sure there is a real practical location in the first place without huge testing to find the hottest oil point. What I think is important, is finding a location that is fairly responsive, and allows you to get input of excessive temp increases, tracked real time against your water temp. That should be enough. Oil pan works if possible, and oil filter sandwich temp and tap might also.

If you ask a racing engineer where you should measure oil temp they'll most likely tell you to measure temp and pressure of the oil that is being sent to the bearings. But that is hard to do unless you have a dry sump setup.

Oil temp in the sump isn't a bad way to go for a wet sump engine. On the dyno we either stick the oil temp probe into the gallery or we stick in the remote filter.

On a street car I don't think it matters where you measure the oil temp. Just find a place that works and then keep it there. If you measure at a remote filter or the back of the block you might be a few degrees lower than the temp in the pan but I wouldn't worry about it.

What surprised me when I hooked up an oil temp gauge was how long it took for the oil to get up to temp. A street car doesn't get the oil hot until you are on the freeway for 10 minutes or so.

Now picture a bypass oil filter doing its thing during that warm up period while you give it throttle.

Oh yeah, I learned a long time ago that you should never rev up a cold engine. And that hot water temp doesn't mean hot oil temp. Some people never learn that lesson. I see guys at the drags revving up cold engines all the time. On the dyno we usually have to run a race engine at fast idle for at least 10 minutes before the oil temp needle moves off of the bottom peg. It just takes a long time for the oil to get hot in most engines. On my dry sump engine the oil never gets hot and we keep a heater running inside the tank all the time. There is just too much cooling surface area with a dry sump tank plus all of the lines.

I built and dyno tested a stroker 440 bracket motor for a customer two yrs. ago that he wanted to run low tens in a 1965 Belvedere 1 street car on race gas. I put a sold roller cam and the valve springs recommended by the cam grinder with 325 lbs. on the seats and 840 lbs. opened, that motor got the oil hot in a hurry
Andy, are you seeing that in your testing with similar spring pressures?

I run a small roller also with a partially filled block. It seems the car cools well but watching the oil pressure it seems like the oil is heating up even with water temperatures stabil. Anyway, I wasn't looking for an absolute oil temp but rather a gauge as to what was mentioned earlier with oil pressure and water temps etc. I guess I will try and install it in the oil feed lines going into the heads as there it will have some oil movement and give me some kind of reading.

Temp sender location is all relative. All you want to make sure of is that there is some liquid flow over the sender so you can read changes. Don't want to put it in a dead spot. As far as the temp itself goes, trying to pick the hottest or coolest spot isn't that important - as long as those areas don't exceed the fluids capabilities. My oil temp sender is in my drain plug. Lots of flow over that area, so I can read changes easily. I like running with oil temp between 180 and 200. The oil I use can easily withstand temps over 250. I am way safe. More interested in consistency for the run.

Since it takes some time for the oil to warm up, it makes sense why the new oil standard for 2018 are 0-16W.

x2. It's where my WRX's oil temp sender is located, too.

Hey guys,



any chance I can get my mechanical oil temp Autometer Z series 2609 with a 3/8 NPT threaded sending unit in my Drain plug spot? Can´t find any adapters, always just for 1/8 NPT....

Drill an tap the drain plug for 1/8 pipe. Mine is in the pan as well. Even withsiamese bore and a diaper on a hot day oil temp rarely exceeds 150 degrees at the dragstrip. It also cools very quickly. Aluminum pan, 5W25 synthetic
Doug

1/8 NPT wouldnt be a problem there are plenty adapters. Mine is 3/8 mechanical one so I can´t figure where to put that sending unit...

For that size you would have to weld a bung in the pan most likely.

Put the probe in the pan unless you run an oil cooler then I would put it there. A partially filled or totally filled block will always be able to have lower water temps, its not doing much at all in terms of cooling anything other than the heads. But oil temps will rise as you are getting no cooling of the bloc or very little. I have a street car with a partial fill and does the same thing. However I have an oil cooler on it and the car has logged thousands of miles like that with no ill affects other than lowish oil pressure at idle when hot.

Think about drilling and tapping the oil pump cover for your sensor
I put them in the remote oil filter adapters on BB

the trouble with the mechanical sensors, is the huge [comparatively speaking] size of the bulb that must go into the liquid [in this case, oil] being monitored.
in this case, as has been said, welding a bung in the pan or fitting[s] adapted to a cooler is about the only choice[s] available.
electrical gauge 1/8npt sending units allow many choices of places to install them, and today's electrical gauges [quality ones of course] are as accurate as mechanical ones.
i realize we are talking mechanical gauges, but i'm just expressing my life's experience. not looking to pile on anyone, or start an argument, so please don't take offense.
i used to believe in only using mechanical gauges, but in my old years, i have changed my mind. i have a complete set of mechanical gauges [S&W stage 3] for my endless project, bought many, many [and even more many] years ago.
if i were buying something today, i would look to electrical units. however, i have the mechanical ones, so i will be using them. [i will also be looking for a good place to install an oil temperature bung. kinda' ironic, eh ?..... ]