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MG MGF Technical - Track Oil Temperature Issue

Had a bloody good laugh on the track at Silverstone on Sunday, but when I watched the video footage later on that evening I noticed my oil temp going up to about 130. Is this normal ? I was giving it some welly, and the car performed fine during both runs and the trip home (temp back to 90ish on the way home)

My main concern is for doing track days in the future that would be more punishing. I have a 1998 VVC with K & N filter.

Cheers
Jeff - R380ODG
J Newman

Jeff,

My 1998 VVC also easily gets up to an oil temp of 130 with spirited driving. On track I've often seen it pretty much vertical on the guage!

A few of us are looking into retrofitting oil coolers - the TF160 has one as standard.

However, the main thing is not to shut off your engine before this temperature has come down. On track always do a cooling off lap and on the motorway always do the last few miles home at low revs.

HTH

Dave

Dave

Jeff

Mine normally sits around the 80-90 mark on normal usage once warm and goes up to 120-125ish if i am red line changing for a period or running 100mph+ for a while

I would say its pretty normal, your working the engine so the oil temp is bound to rise..

if it goes much higher than 140 i'd be a little concerned

Stu

Wokingham

PS. what oil you running?
Stu

Good point dave!

Stu
Stu

Jeff

Yes quite normal - I see mine get up there on the Nürburgring and even on longish runs along the German Autobahn.

I also seem to remember the report on the testers at Gaydon having a competition to see who could get the highest reading AND 150 was normal:-)

Ted
Ted Newman

Everything seems ok them - that is a relief.

Stu - I have Castrol Magnatec in my engine

Thanks for the info guys

Cheers
Jeff - R380ODG
J Newman

Given the numbers of MGF owners giving their cars hard use on track days, then the occassional foray into the mid-hundreds ºC isn't likely to cause too many problems.

Just reckon on replacing the oil and filter a little more frequently than the usual scheduled 12 months.

Whether you buy an oil cooler may boil (er - no pun intended) down to how much you intend to use your car on track. One or two track days a year, then I probably wouldn't bother.

Do more, or use your car frequently for very high speed running (such as on the German autobahn), then the fitment of an oil cooler is a good idea. Persistant running over 110ºC should make you seriously consider an oil cooler.

Two options: an air cooled oil cooler and an oil/water heat exchanger

The air cooled oil coolers are the ones found fitted to competition MGFs. They need to be thermostatically controlled, but run the risk of over-cooling the oil, which is almost as bad as having the oil too hot in terms of consequences to the engine. Because the MGF has a mid-mounted engine, you need to have very long oil pipes - so there is a larger oil capacity to consider, and although the oil pump should be more than capable of handling the extra circuit capacity, one has to wonder whether it's life span will be affected. The answer to this latter question is not one that I know. Perhaps folks at Tech-speed, Brown and Gammons etc can help with this?

The water/oil cooler is probably a better option. Because it uses the engine coolant, and engine coolant warms faster than oil, the water/oil cooler actually reduces oil warm up time - a big advantage in terms of engine wear under a huge range of circumstances. And because the oil temperature is very close to the water temperature through heat exchange, there is a reduced temperature gradient between the head and block - good for the longevity of the cylinder head.

That the TF160 uses this latter form of water/oil cooler indicates that MG think that this design is a good idea...

A good after market alternative is the Mocal Laminova unit. It's available as a kit for the Lotus Elise, which should be suitable for the MGF with some modifications. Not the cheapest option perhaps, but almost certainly one of the best.
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed on 23/06/2003

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