SVT oil temps HIGH at Lime Rock Park...Help!

[apex214]

OK, in a nutshell, the situation: SCDA track day, yesterday, Aug 10th, air temps in the 80's, and humid, gearing of the car runs out at redline in third right at each of the three fastest corner entries, so the lil engine is screaming near redline everywhere. After a few very hard laps, oil temps on the stock gauge would go up to the red zone unless I backed off a bit for part of a lap. I started using the heater, blowing the side vents out the windows and that helped quite a bit, keeping the gauge in the mid to high normal range.

The question: what have any of you used as an auxiliary oil cooler? Are there any good "universal kits" or have you pieced together any good components? I see FSWERKS has a kit but I am not going to run crimp-clamped rubber hoses if I can help it...I have little faith in that sort of set up frankly, not under the conditions I am running. I would much prefer some sort of braided line.

[Paladin]

you could always get that kit and replace the lines with braided ones. heck email randy at fswerks. he might be able to make you a custom kit.

[apex214]

Originally Posted by Paladin

you could always get that kit and replace the lines with braided ones. heck email randy at fswerks. he might be able to make you a custom kit.

Wise ideas...I should have thought of those. Frankly I'm brain-fried today. It was hot and exhausting, with over two hours of track time...I feel hung over!

[BadIdea]

IGNORE that guage. It's not the actual oil temp but a calculation based on what the computer thinks the temp will be mainly based on air temp and engine duty cycle.

[D.Boone]

What kind of oil are you using and what viscosity?

[shlbygt]

I have never had high water or oil temps while tracking an SVT and I've tracked three different ones, two with JRSC's. I've run at Miller Motorsport Park and Willow Springs with ambient temps of ~105 and both of them are at elevations above 2500'.
On the east coast I've run Sebring and Watkins Glen in 90+ weather. The highest water temps I’ve seen on track is ~210-212 according to a ScanGauge which records peak conditions during the run.
BadIdea is correct in that the stock gauge infers temp and pressure from other parameters.
I would plumb a real gauge to verify actual high temps before installing a cooler.
The only temp issue I’ve seen while tracking the SVT is with the power steering system. There just isn’t enough fluid volume in the system to allow the stock cooler to drop the temps while on track. The SVT reservoir is nothing more than a place to add PS fluid.
On a 90+ day at ThunderHill Park the PS fluid temp would go to 260 very quickly then fall to 150 -160 while tooling through the pits. Normal highway driving would give ~120 temps.
After installing a small Derale transmission cooler in front of the radiator the temps on track would run ~160 max with ~100-110 in normal driving conditions. Besides the cooling benefit of the cooler, the lines and the cooler nearly doubled the fluid capacity of the stock PS system.
Can’t wait to run the Glen again this Monday and Tuesday.

[apex214]

Thanks folks for the wide ranging replies...I'll wait until next year to further investigate the remote oil cooler issue I suppose. My only events the rest of the year are at Monticello at the end of September, and Lime Rock at the end of October...cooler air temps will help for sure, especially if the intake air temp is part of the "inferred" oil temp reading on the gauge.

[apex214]

Originally Posted by D.Boone

What kind of oil are you using and what viscosity?

For the record: Castrol Syntec 5W-30