Offshoreonly.com - Best Oil Temp Sensor Mounting Location

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To the block and onto the main bearings, cam bearings and lifter bores etc. P.S. put the sender in the pan if u-can ! like chris said !

if I tap it off the pan now I will have to tap it off the drain plug .. I believe the drain plug is 1/2x20 sae ... so I will need to adapt from sae to npt ...also I have drain hoses off the plans... To keep those will have to "T" .... There is a plug on the side of the pan but it prob is too high to get a good wet reading ...m

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Sunkin (Post 2346674)

From the pan, directly immersed into flowing oil is my preference. The oil in the pan is what's about to be fed to the engine. It's also the largest mass of oil and best representative of actual oil temp, not just an isolated incidence. By the time you get a spike measured on a sensor mounted at the dead end of a tee, it's probably too late. I like to use idiot light sensors tied into a main "trouble light" and a very loud horn as a backup. When you're running hard, watching the waves, throttling and dodging the occasional waterborne moron, you're not always watching the gauges.

spot on info............i use lights for pressure and temp

Quote:

Originally Posted by nocigarette (Post 2347059)

spot on info............i use lights for pressure and temp

the new Gaffrig sending units have a output for LP Alarm ..

I just noticed that today....I am changing to the race series this winter......

At Stef's we recommend the pan

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstraub (Post 2349702)

At Stef's we recommend the pan

Chris ... you dont have an adapter for a oil pan plug ? 1/2x20 to NPT ..........m

Just get a machine shop to make you up a spare oil drain plug that's already tapped for your sensor. eg get an extended external hex plug (so you can undo the plug) and then have the centre tapped to whatever thread you need for your sensor.

Make sure your sensor has sufficient reach to get into the oil properly.

Bulk oil temperature is the best indication of how hard the fluid is having to work. Temperature measurements elsewhere can be prone to upheat issues eg engine block) or cooling eg the oil filter adaptor is hanging in the engine room airflow and may underread.

Sump is always the best answer and is what we always use on engine dyno testing for the best indication of stress on the oil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by race9 (Post 2350637)

The oil in the pan is the oil that just came out of the motor, not the oil that is about to go into it (until it goes back through the filter and cooler).

That being said, its still a decent place to put the sender, as it shows what temps are being created after the oil has passed through the bearings etc. However, on most engines its a pain, as there is no place to mount it. So the easiest place is usually the remote oil filter housing. This receives the same hot oil that was in the pan, with a little heat added from the pump. Plus almost every after market remote oil filter bracket has a place for the oil temp fitting.

I wrote that unclearly. What I meant is that the oil in the pan is the best representation of the actual temperature of the oil inside of your engine. It would be like placing your coolant sender in the radiator outlet- all that tells you is that the cooler is working well. It doesn't give you a true picture of what's inside the engine. You're right about the sender. I doubt the pump adds more than 5 and maybe 10 degrees max. It just needs to be right in the flow of oil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by race9 (Post 2352067)

I agree with you. Just didn't want someone to get confused on how the oil flows. I'd like the pan better too, as it is truer numbers. I've seen it after the cooler, and unless you know what it is before the cooler, I don't think that tells as much as before the cooler.

I was confused, I'm glad that's cleared up.

So for those that don't have easy access to a pan location, but instead have easy access to a remote filter port, it's the best proxy to add an oil temp gauge.

Also, the port just above the filter on the block, that would be oil returning to the engine after having been through the cooler right? Sounds like a better location for pressure. If you have that location and the top of the block, I think I'd want a gauge sender just above the filter mount, and a warning sender at the top of block?