Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by willis936 1274 days ago
My 2018 car (gasoline, turbocharged, direct injection) has coolant and oil temp readouts. The increase in coolant temp from a cold start leads the oil temp by a few minutes (exact time is dependent on ambient temperature and load profile).

Once the oil temp starts to get above 150F it very quickly gets to the operating temp (220F), so I view that as the point that it's okay to go above 3000 RPM.

If there are oil heaters then they must be far away from the oil reservoir temperature sensor and only have a local effect. As you say, that sounds like a feature for very large engines. It's probably a good practice to be gentle to car engines with cold oil.

2 comments

Street cars have been using coolant/oil heat exchangers to bring oil up to temp faster and regulate its temperature under load since at least 1999 (source: VW's 1.8T, AEB and AWP motors).

https://store.ngpracing.com/acm-oil-cooler-heat-exchanger-1-...

Most engines will have a lower redline until the engine has reached a certain temp