Hi Just got myself a 550. All seems well, but I notice low-ish water and oil temps when cruising on the highway. I see 75c/165-170 f water and oil is on the first white marker above 40c/100f. Is this normal or do I have an issue with a thermostat? I would not want to push the revs on a medium oil temp Experiences?
I have this problem too and 2 new t stats doing this tell me it is ok. I had a second 550 that did this too but I never checked the tstat by taking it out and testing it or changing it after going through that cooling system. I have always been a non- complainer about these cars overheating. Perhaps you and I have good working cooling systems. I would prefer the right temp all the time but I'll take running cool over running hot.
Seems fairly normal to me. Where do you live, what's the ambient temp, and how's the oil pressure? I live in Miami and during normal cruising my water temp is always around 160-170f, with oil temps usually around the same range. Only when I get spirited and start pushing redlines constantly, or sit in traffic for extended periods does my water temp get to 190+ and oil temps up to the 210 range.
Denmark. Was roughly 60f today. Not worried about water, just oil being on white line, which is hard to know what corresponds to Image Unavailable, Please Login
That is 140 F and pretty cool for oil temp. My 575M runs much warmer than that and I do not use over 4000 rpm until I have 160 F/70 C. Not sure about 550s, but my old Daytona used to run that cool (60 C), too, unless really pressed.
Maybe try cleaning the pins on the oil temperature sender to see if it makes a difference? High resistance = low values, I think.
Sounds like a good idea Could also clean it out completely.. This, right? I'm guessing that is accissible from below, taking the underbody cover off? Will it spill oil, or is it above level, whith engine off? Image Unavailable, Please Login By the way, could this not be an oil thermostat issue? I'm sure the car got up to full temps when I drove it the first time before purchasing, but now its changed. It hasn't been used a lot lately.
If remember correctly, yes. It's the plug which gets drowned in oil when you do an oil change. Don't remove the sensor, just clean the connector. It may be full of oil.
... and thanks for the tip... I just realised I mislabelled the signals coming from the sensor as "pressure" in my my wiring diagram. New diagram here: https://www.dropbox.com/t/vwh1eGssYUL0kZgS
I drove my one in Germany last week at less than 10 °C outside temperature for around 70km (cruising with a short-time max. 230 km/h only - didn't want to push the engine immediately after the winter break at such low temperatures, despite a strip of unrestricted Autobahn). Oil temperature reached just around 70 °C and water also stayed clearly below mid-point. Same status which I usually reach after 5-10 km at summer temperatures. Seems to be quite normal.
My 550 does the same when cruising at low speeds, same temps. (But I have a intermittent problem with banks not always working, which might cool things down...working on that) When starting up at home, I wait till idle gets the temps to higher than this, but when driving they drop to the same temps as you have. I have read of people blocking part of the cooling area , to have higher temps. Don't know if it is the right solution, but if in trafic you still have low oil temps, it might be an idea. In that case you need to be sure the temps do reach the right height at idle at some point , otherwise your meter signal might be misreading too low. Tried checking the temp of the oil tank with a infrared temp meter from the outside, to compare? I assume the tank temp is lower anyway, but the sensor is mounted in that tank, so maybe it gives some clues.
Planning to do this. Saw that as well. I will test to see if my temps get higher when not driving, and also test to see if fans kick in (don't know if oil temp is part of this though). I think the blocking of cooling area is more related to water temp. I'm guessing there is a specific oil cooler somewhere, or is it a heat exchanger? In case my temps do not rise when idling, I would expect it to be the oil thermostat, which I allready suspect, but it seem noone has experiences with this.
Image Unavailable, Please Login The oil thermostat is rather expensive, so I would try to test other things first... The oil radiator (nr 2 above) is on the left side, next to the water radiator. When you remove the large black shield, it should be visible. But blocking a radiator is never a real solution of a temp problem, only a band aid for the real problem (if it exists, which I am not sure of). As far as I know, and I am not a mechanic, there is only one sensor in the tank, and Ian's diagram will show it in that case. The fans are switched on by water temp sensors underneath the manifold. Most faulty temp switches/sensors break down in a continuous "non-contact" mode, causing the fans to NOT start at the right temp, and not causing them to run all the time. So not likely in this case.
All Italian cars without a «programmed» temp needle is like that. Mine goes even below the white line if I go down hill with zero throttle for a while. The engine is cooled by the oil and by the coolant. In addition, the outside of the block gets colder than the inside when the car is moving as the temp in the engine compartment is cold. My engine compartment temp is usually 10 degrees Celsius higher than the outside air when running at 50 mph. or more. A Ferrari use let’s say 50 horsepower when it runs at a steady 60 mph. A bigger car use probably more due to more drag . But the engine of the Ferrari is much bigger than a normal car. That is why (in my opinion) the heat get devided into the three cooling elements (the oil, the coolant and the outside of the complete engine which is quite big). I can’t see any other reasonable explanation. Aluminium also transport heat much more efficiently than iron. Even at higher speed the temps are quite low. Oil temp around 180-200 F. Ferrari know how to make fast cars! (Oil pressure sender was faulty here, and showing way too much). Image Unavailable, Please Login
Dang... still got it wrong... Third time lucky? https://www.dropbox.com/t/uaxmyoEMlBzvkgp6 Now version 42 !
So, I got the car up to temp (70c / 160f) on the metre. IR measured on the oil tank being the same as the metre (makes sense) and also measured on an oil filter an the center placed "splitter" that has oil lines to the both sides of the engine. Both of these measured 80 c/ 175f. But according the manual it should be 100c/212f on the metre / oil tank. I'm thinking thermostat, as the sender seems to be spot on. Only possible fault here is, the sender is wrong and the actual temperature of the oil is higher than i measure on the outside of the oil tank. I will still check the senders pin soon. Any other thoughts based on the above?
The thermostat "decides" which route the hot oil must take. To open or close, the threshold temps have to be met. All obvious and no news. But: if the thermostat would have been faulty in an open position, all temps should have been the same, like the 70 or 80 degrees. Maybe a degree or 2 differences, but not much more on the oil lines. (in reality it is hard to do a comparable measurement on 2 positions, I know) But since there is a difference in temps between to measuring points, to me it looks like there is a barrier, the thermostat. If the thermostat would stick in a closed position, there are temp differences, but then the oil would be much hotter than 80 degrees. Even more than the 100 degrees the WSM states. Otherwise the whole concept of a thermostat would have been unnecessary. Your situation sounds as if the thermostat has not opened yet. Temps still not high enough (80 degrees) As this car can do 300 km/h, the oil cooling system will have to be able to deal with that as well. Which means over -capacity in normal use. Does the WSM state what the conditions have to be, to reach 100 degrees? Fans just started , or after 10 mins of idle or something like that? And since you have a IR meter, maybe you can start all over from cold, and watch the temps rise on different locations, to see if there is a sudden change in the temps on the lines to and from the tank. Best use the unions, as the insulation on the lines will give false readings.
Thanks, all good info and great idea about following the temps. I'll do that in the weekend, where I will alsto through it on my lift. I don't understand this. As my temps are too cold driving in the city (aprox 70c/160f) and highway (60c/140f), I would think it would be stuck open. Is it due to the 10c difference I see? I would think this would be normal from before/after cooler. I havent figured the flow path of the oil yet though. In my mind, a test could be: Remove the black shield Idle and follow temps round the unions as you state Check if oil cooler temps follow the reservoir and the oil filter. If they do, the thermostat is open. If there is a difference of 30c+ before temps get even out, the thermostat is closed. Could the thermostat only be partly working? I've had that issue in a previous car, which makes my idea above irrelevant..
Yes, the thermostat can also be partially open, or partially working (not fully opening or closing) That is making things difficult to test and be conclusive. I have not tested an oil thermostat on the bench, so I can't say how it behaves, but I assume it has the same principle as a coolant thermostat, which you can observe in opening while temps are rising in your pan of water. Maybe you can use a deep fryer instead? About the 80 degrees, I do not know the threshold temps for the oil thermostat, but 80 degrees sounds like too low for it to open. So if the highest temp block side is 80, I would not be surprised if it still did not open.
So, I discussed with the service department at the local official F dealership. They tell me, that this low temperature is directly due to the low-ish outside temperature. I was critical of this, as my understanding is, that oil should be 80c+/175f+ to provide optimal lubrication. Also the manual states 100c / 212f is the correct operating temperature. He told me that is not an issue with modern synthetics (exclude heavy track oils like 10w60) as they have optimal lubrication from 40c /104f. The issue is more the oil pressure generated at the lower temperatures and this leads to less than optimal lubrication. This is not an issue above 60c/140f. This is news to me, but as he is head of the service department and racing department for a large market here, he should know what he is talking about. Conclusion; apparently the lower temps than stated in the manual is fine, dependant on outside temperature, unless we go to extremes of caus. I will still test with letting the car warm up idling and take note of any diffrences. Thoughts?
Not sure if you've come across this read: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/motor-oil-all-chapters-inclusive-copy-and-save-this.136052/ Has fantastic information, mostly made to describe reasons for certain oil viscosities, but also dives into temp vs pressure relationships. I believe the general take-away from what the service guy told you is mostly correct. 212 would be the absolute optimum oil temp, but anything above 100 is fine with full synthetics as long as you have a low enough 100 viscosity of 0 or 5 as OEM recommends. I wouldn't go so far as the service guy said that optimal lubrication starts at 100 though. I honestly would be worried about revving anything over 3-4k unless oil temps were above 120.
