Finally the topic of oil temp hits the list..

Ok, my 2 cents..

Some years back before a trip to baja in my '64 bus I bought Oil temp, Cyl
temp, and Oil pressure from VDO.  Great, now I not only wondered about every
little noise I heard, I was watching the gauges instead of the road.

My temp hit 250f and (as all my expert VW friends told me) the oil was shot
and my motor was not far behind.  Funny how it seemed to run fine before I
put in the gauges.

Well, I called Kendall Oil, and after being put on hold by five different
people, I was connected to some tech - I could hear a motor roaring in the
background.  He laughed and said that "at the lab" they run their motors
above 250 for days at at time.  (Ok, maybe not a VW motor).  He said that
the oxidation rate of oil is dependent on temp (duh) and time (duh).  So if
you run it hot then change it more often.  He said on a VW without an oil
cleaner you need to change it more often, so often that oxidation is
probably not much of a concern.  So 250 doesn't bother me that much any more
-- it just means it's the time of year to find a nice place to take a swim.

Anyway, this isn't about oil but rather about the gauges.  Besides giving my
something to worry about all the gauges did was tell me things I already had
been told and knew very well:  downshift on the hills, don't push it on the
freeway, and oil temp is directly related to the outside air temp.  It turns
out that when I used to open up back to check the oil and I say "damn it's
hot in here", well, it was.

My gauges have not really ever saved my motor although I've only had one
major break down with the gauges installed (and yes, they did confirm that
my motor was shot as I pulled over with a trashed main bearing).  They
probably have taken a year or so off my life because I now worry about them
so much.  

The gauges are fun, though.  I've always wanted to put a hidden adjustment
on the oil temp gauge to have fun with my "vw experts" when they ride along.
"380?, it always runs at 380!".

But the best thing I ever did for my bus was to put in a high volume oil
pump.  That made my motor run cooler, quieter and kept that little light
from flickering at idle.  Plus it was cheaper than the gauges.

And if your brain needs to be lubed more about oil: see
http://skylands.ibmwr.org/tomk/sbr/tom/tech/oil_facts.html

Bill Moseley
mailto:moseley@netcom.com