What is Normal Operating Temperature?

I was reading another thread on oil sludge and a question came to mind regarding short trips and normal operating temperature. I was wondering if anyone knows what normal operating temperature is and how long or how many miles it takes to get there. I imagine that it would vary; but is there an average?

 

When it's warm out and/or running for awhile 190* per my scan gauge. Doesn't take long to get to operating temp.

 

Thanks for your responses. Speaking of scanguage, is the normal oprating temp on it consistnet with the temparature guage on the vehicle? In other words, when my temp guage gets to its normal position, does that mean that I have reached about 190?

 

Yes, when the scangage reads 190 - 192* the temp needle is in the middle, normal operating position.

 

If I remember rightly... the highest temp I've ever seen on the scangage is 193* and that was running across western TX where the speed limit is 80 mph

 

Water temperature is only loosely related to the OIL temperature.

The coolant will warm quickly, helping to control combustion characteristics (and keeping your tootsies warm).

Oil temperature tends to lag coolant temperature. During extreme cold operation, oil temperature might not rise beyond 140 degF, even over moderately long trips of up to fifty miles.

Normal OIL temperature is in the 190- to 220 degF range. The oil needs to reach those temperatures to boil combustion bypass water out of the crankcase. That's why sludge problems are more frequent during cold weather.

The water problem can become sufficiently severe to ice up and disable crankcase ventilators. The resulting crankcase pressure my prevent the engine from turning over at start-up.

The solution is preventative: be sure to make as many long trips as possible during cold weather and avoid frequent, short trips.

 

Thanks def4pos8, I didn't look at it from that standpoint. I only live about 2 miles from work. This morning was about 15 degrees. It was about 32 degrees when I got home. I guess I'll have to try make up for it on the weekends and maybe at lunch time.

Also, thanks ImpulseRed008 for your response.

 

By the way, does scanguage read oil temp?

 

No oil temp on scangauge. My truck reads about 185-187 in this season.

 

You're welcome.

Cold weather operations are weird. The crankcase vent ice-up/no start thing is more than theory. It happened to my sister's Buick back in '06 in the, relatively, "mild" winter at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. --too many short trips. . . .

I learned cold weather ops at such "garden spots" such as Duluth, Minnesota and Minot, North Dakota (Lower ManiSkatchiwan, eh! ) while serving in the Air Force during The Bad Old Days.

My son was born at Minot and resides today at Grand Forks. He is known here as "sweater 914" and did the oil pan heater sticky. Oil pan heaters help with this crap, since they warm the oil to about 40 or 50degF when the outside air temp is down around -20 or -40 degF.

We are aviators. He's an airline captain now but we both fly light aircraft. If you think trucks are "fun" in the cold, imagine what it's like to try to coax an air/oil-cooled engine to life at -20 degF!!

Welcome to a wider world!!

 

I added a digital autometer water temp. and the highest I have ever seen was around 200F.

It's hooked up to the ingoing hose to the heater core.

 

well according to my scangauge water temps average 179 to 185 for me. Seems to get the 185 when it cooler out which I know sounds odd but I think it has to do with the thermal coupling on the fan.

 

I know this is an old thread but my 2TRFE coolant temp gets to 175F (per scan gauge) on a 15 mile trip. Is this too low? Outside temp around 70F and driving 55mph.

 

Yes this is an old thread and yes 175F seems too low since the thermostat is 180F (I believe). But 175 is still hot enough to be considered normal, I would not say it is too low. Run the AC for 5-10 minutes and see if the coolant temp comes up.
Anything not stock in your engine or cooling system/radiator? Where are you having ambient temps of 70F in July?

 

I’m in good old central Kentucky. That temp was on my way in to work this morning with AC on. All stock (as far as I can tell)- I am the 2nd Owner. I replaced the water pump and thermostat with Aisin brand this past weekend. Before replacement I believe the temp was about the same.

 

My 2004 2.7 has never gotten above 184 degrees except a few times when I was revving the shit out of it at 4500 RPM climbing a hill when I first got it with 119,000 miles. Just to see what it would do. That was also on a summer day around 90 degrees. It hit 215 degrees on one "climb". I stopped doing that since it's a daily driver.

In any case, oil temp follows coolant temp by around 20 degrees. If you're coolant is at 200 degrees then your oil is around 180 degrees. No oil temp gauge is necessary. My truck never runs above 184 degrees even when it is 90+ outside at 80+ mph. I even had to buy a "winterfront" for mine during winter because on really cold days it never got above 173 degrees and when it gets below zero it gets down around 167 degrees.

I use 100% synthetic which, except for Pennzoil platinum the last I heard, can't be bought off of a shelf at any parts store unless they are a distributor of said brand of oil. You have to go "boutique" if you want 100% synthetic and that goes for all of them except Pennzoil Platinum which isn't what I use. You have to go with Redline, Shaeffer's, Amsoil etc. to get a real true synthetic and they aren't worth it unless you race or want extended oil change intervals. Mine are now at 10,000 miles with Amsoil Signature 10-30. I could go longer per Blackstone's oil analysis but I don't. I do this only for one reason. I don't want to spend time and crawl under there to change my oil any more often than I have to The same with the Iridium plugs I run. Although for other reasons I may switch back to the standard copper Denso's it had when new.

Modern day engines need to run at 180 degrees or above to operate the way they are intended to run. Temps below 180 degrees just aren't good for them. Even with the winterfront mine still stays down around 175 degrees when on the interstate at 80 mph. Sometimes less.

Short trips everyday aren't good for any engine, especially if it's in a cold climate. The engine should be fully warmed up for around 15 minutes to get all the condensation out of the oil and exhaust system. If not? Run it for a road trip on the weekends. There is no quicker way to ruin an automobile than 1 or 2 miles a day in frigid temps. At the very least you will get reduced mileage out of it and increased repair bills down the road.

I have a Scan Gauge in mine and it never gets above 188 degrees and that is only after I drive on the interstate for 15 miles and then get off onto 35 mph streets for a few miles and then park it. That's on summer days around 90 degrees.

On the interstate even at 85mph for 2 or 3 hours it never gets above around 184 degrees in temperatures well over 90 degrees even with 750 lbs in the bed. Even when climbing a 7% grade at 3500 rpm. The temp gauge in the truck is always right in the middle no matter the ambient temp or how fast or long I'm driving. Winter or summer. That's why I have the Scan Gauge.

That tells me the factory temp gauge isn't very accurate. However, I'm sure it is accurate enough to prevent engine damage should it really overheat.

 

I just put a new Thermostat in my 2.4 Liter engine, while doing a radiator flush.

180 degree Thermostat is what's recommended.

$20 MotoRad 7298-180 Fail-Safe Thermostat

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CJ2UZW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1