[T3] temp gauge

Dave Pallo rdavid at rochester.rr.com
Sat Mar 23 11:59:45 PDT 2013


[[[I agree with Keith that the best place to measure a sort of "average"
temp is at the pressure port on the oil cooler, but to do this with some
reasonable accuracy and response time, you would need a probe that sticks
down into the flowing oil inside the body of the cooler.]]]
 
I have my oil temp sensor down by the sump, sticking into the oil fill tube
as close to the block mount as I could get it. (I see Frank Meek has no oil
fill tube here, so he mounted his sensor into a block-off plate.) My temp
readings show consistently 20 degrees hotter than Keith's when we are
traveling together. Kinda cool to see the difference has been consistent ;-)
 
[[[Finally, we come back to the real problem, which is that none of us
actually KNOW where the danger area begins. Even given perfect data, we
don't know what it means. We may think we know, but we're just guessing]]]
 
Yes, we don't know for sure what readings show what is a problem. We do know
too hot is not good.
 
I used to run a lawnmower repair business out of my garage. People would
bring me their sluggish running mowers without knowing why. When questioned
about what prior service had been done to their mowers - they usually said
"I changed the spark plug and the oil and sharpened the blade - what else is
there?" When I asked about servicing the cooling system - the response was
"it's air cooled - it needs no service". Well, those were the engines that
had burned out exhaust valves from running too hot. Under the sheet metal
cover, the cylinder head fins were so plugged by grass clippings that the
head could not be cooled by the cooling fan forced air. The customer had no
idea his engine was running hot until the exhaust valve couldn't take the
excessive heat and finally burned away it's seal. Now what would have
happened if the motor had an oil temp. gauge on it from the beginning? Would
the average Joe know ~about~ what temp his engine normally runs, and when
the grass plugged the cooling fins and showed hotter temps - would he then
get it serviced?    Probably not ;-)
 
My point is that since I have a temp gauge on Elwood that gives me readings,
and from experience I can predict ~about~ where the temp should be, I think
I would have some added information from these readings if something were to
go wrong back there. I also just love seeing how the temps react to
different driving scenarios. and I always drive Elwood too slow - it's not
just my gauges that make me drive slower ;-)
 

 

Dave Pallo

'72 Square ~ Elwood

Fairport, NY

 

 
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