I finally got around to installing my oil temp gauge. 

 

The sender is in the filter head. 

 

So far I don’t have many miles on it but the oil temp stays about 10° below coolant while the engine is warming and then under normal loads it’s matches coolant. I’ll be towing with it soon enough thou. 

 

I have the ISSPRO attribute programmer but I haven’t decided what temp to set the alarm light to. I was thinking 250° thou. 

Edited May 20, 20186 yr by AH64ID

12 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

I haven’t decided what temp to set the alarm light to. I was thinking 250° thou. 

 

I would do a towing trip and go about 5 to 10 degrees warmer than your normal temperature. 250*F I think is going to be too hot. What I've heard most say the oil typically is about 10+ over the engine temp usually... I guess we'll find out. 

I got the 250° from the Cummins ISB max allowable oil temp for non-EGR engines. EGR engines can go up to 275° 

 

I think +20° is a normal reading from what I read. 

Still don't sound very safe that high of a temperature. 

Cummins Quickserve specs oil temperature maximum at 280*F for a CM850 ISB. Pretty darn hot for me. If it were me I would see what my normal towing oil temperature is and set oil temperature alarm for 10* to 15* over normal. Seems you would be able to catch issues causing higher than normal temperature with low risk of internal engine damage caused by high oil temperature.

 

 

---Correction. I searched Quickserve a little deeper and found maximum 5.9 without EGR oil temperature is 248*F.

Edited May 20, 20186 yr by 04Mach1
Found correct information

 That’s the same information I found. I wish I knew exactly where they were measuring oil temperature, but I’m guessing it’s in the filter head. 

 

 And they spec that with Dino oil, and one of the reasons I run amsoil is so that if it does get hot the oil is not affected. 

Cummins installs oil temperature sensors on the ISX in the oil galley on the left (Driver's) side of the engine. They put oil pressure and oil temperature next to each other on the ISX using separate ports. I'm not sure if there is another port by the oil pressure sensor (close to the ECM) on the ISB. If I was at the shop I could check the 07 5.9 I'm installing be tomorrow.

There is a port by the ECM that is a metric O ring fitting. That’s where I read pressure from. 

 

I didn’t think I could adapt the 1/8” NPT to o-ring and still have the sensor in the flow. 

You could but you would need an adapter like oil pressure sensor use. Actually the oil pressure sensor uses a banjo fitting adapter.

29 minutes ago, 04Mach1 said:

You could but you would need an adapter like oil pressure sensor use. Actually the oil pressure sensor uses a banjo fitting adapter.

 

Yeah, I’m just worried that the probe won’t be far enough into the stream by the time the adapters are done.

Personally, I don't think it will make that much difference. The block, and all the oil in that area will all be the same temperature as long as the engine is running. 

49 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Personally, I don't think it will make that much difference. The block, and all the oil in that area will all be the same temperature as long as the engine is running. 

 

 If that was the case there would not be a difference in temperature between coolant and oil. 

Missed my point. I'm talking strict the measurement of the oil. If the probe is in the oil port with an adapter and the tip isn't exactly in the middle of the stream all the oil is going to be very close to the same as the moving oil. I really doubt you can measure a serious difference of temperature with an NPT to Metric adapter.

My engine has a port below and a little left of the ECM near the bottom of the block. I had an oil pressure switch there a long time ago to turn on my booster fuel pump. Of course i used for pressure and not temp but dont have clue as to whether it could be used for a temp sensor. 

That's the problem I think 3rd Gen has straight metric ports compared to the NPT you have.

9 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Missed my point. I'm talking strict the measurement of the oil. If the probe is in the oil port with an adapter and the tip isn't exactly in the middle of the stream all the oil is going to be very close to the same as the moving oil. I really doubt you can measure a serious difference of temperature with an NPT to Metric adapter.

 

If you’re out of the main flow your reading a localized temp vs the actual temp. 

 

The IAT senor on the 2nd gen is a prime example of how much location matters. The 2nd gen IAT readings seem so far off you have to wonder why they even bothered. 

Come on AH64ID air is a different topic also the head design is way different too. (I'm going to drop this topic)

 

So back to the oil... Like I said I really doubt the oil is going to be way different measure if the probe tip isn't exactly in the flow of the gallery. What is the most you going o be back maybe 1/4"? Seriously I doubt the oil will cool that much between the main gallery and the adapter and the sensor.

Air may be different, but the inability to remotely read temperature readings is not. If you want an accurate temperature reading the probe needs to be in the flow. 1/4" removed from the flow is a 1/4" too far. 

 

Even thou it's air, look at the EGT differences people see by putting their pyro probe in the EGR blockoff plate on a 6.7 vs the actual flow. The readings are drastically different due to the much lower flow over the probe. 

 

Liquid will have a much lower error, but there is no point in installing a gauge to get a "close enough" reading. The whole point in this gauge is to get some data on the oil cooling capacity on a modded motor. 

Looking like the +20° temp is holding fairly true. While towing at ~18K GCW and pulling a couple 6-7% grades the hottest I saw was 227°. 17-20° above coolant is what it likes. 

 

The oil does take longer to warm up, and to cool down, than the coolant. The coolant would drop to 190° on the downhill pretty quickly but the oil would still be 215° and take a while to drop. While driving it never seems to get much lower than +10°, but will drop to coolant temp at idle. 

 

I think I'll set my warning light for the 248° that Cummins recommends, that's 23° above the max allowable coolant temp for my 190° thermostat, which is inline with what I have been seeing. 

 

I did notice that the oil temp warms faster with the thermostat closed, and cools faster with it open. This is likely due to the oil cooler getting the coolant first with the thermostat open. 

Edited June 6, 20186 yr by AH64ID

The oil in my Ford runs between 10-12 degrees hotter than the coolant, pretty much no matter what I'm doing with the truck, so I think you're in the ballpark. I set all of my oil temp warnings (my 6.4 Powerstroke, my 392 stroker Hemi, the late model circle track car I drive) at 230 to get my attention and alert me that things are getting hot, for whatever reason. That then allows me to monitor it closely and see what's going on before things are too out of hand

 

Just my $.02...

So I've had the gauge in for about 6 months and lots of towing. 

 

In the summer on a 100° day, pulling a long grade the oil will get up to 235° when the coolant is 209-210°, that's at anywhere from 17-23K GCW. 

 

Last week I ran 750 miles in one day to Wyoming and back and never saw the oil get above 205°, and I was towing the whole way. I was towing about 8.5K lbs out to Wyoming and 4K back. 

 

On the way out the ambient temp was 12-23° and coolant held 193-195° at 75 on the interstate and oil was 195-197°, on the way back I ran 80 on the interstate an oil temps crept up to 205° on some hills, but the ambient was up to 35-43°.

 

All in all, it has been a fun gauge to watch and ambient temp does play a big role in how fast it warms up, cools down, or how hot it will hold when towing.