Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, I installed oil temperature and pressure senders between my oil filter and block using one of those "sandwich" style housings. I also have a cylinder head temp sensor on the #3 spark plug.

The first thing I notice is that when the engine is fully hot and at idle, the pressure gauge drops to 0 Bar indicated - although the existing pressure switch (on top of the block) does not turn on. I know for a fact that it works, so is this just because of where the pressure sensor is? When there's revs, the pressure picks up to between 1.5 - 3 Bar.

The second thing, is that the engine gets hot at motorway cruising speeds (50mph in my case). There's a considerable smell associated with this - the rocker cover did have a very large oil leak recently (now fixed). I have seen the oil temperature get up to 125C. The cylinder head can get up to 120-130C.

I've found that in normal driving (town, country roads), the oil temp will sit around 110-120C, and cylinder head at 80 - 100C.

Are these numbers OK or should I be worried? I am a bit put off by the smell of this thing.

The smell could be from the oil getting into the heat exchangers.

How accurate and how good quality is your gauge ?

The temperatures don’t sound out of the way, what makes you think it’s hot ?

Your oil temperature is about right, but cylinder temperature appears low. I measure the air temperature in the area where a thermostat should be. That tends to hover around 100°c, and I adjust the flaps to maintain that. So to heat a fast flowing airstream to 100°c, the cylinder would be well over 150°c. 
Do you have a thermostat?