What engine temps are people seeing? I recently got a Scan Gauge and my water temp seems to be a little high.

Ambient temp in 60s and 70s F.
Cruising on freeway: 190-195 F
Stop and go traffic: 200-220 F

Full throttle acceleration will immediately spike the temps about 5 F momentarily.

Should I be worried about these readings? Thanks for any insight.

 

These readings are almost exactly what I observe with my SGII. If your thermostat is stock it opens at 220F (unlike aftermarket ones that might open at 180F). Consequently you shouldn't ever see temps above 220, and you should find your radiator fan goes on above 210 or thereabouts.
Because you have a sealed pressurized system, the water can be above boiling temp.

 

same for me with my sgII

 

I see higher temps than that. I've seen as high as 235 or so when it's really warm out and I'm not moving.

190-230 sounds about right for stock thermo though.

 

Phil, I think you have your numbers confused(which is a first for you).
The stock thermostat is 90.5 Celsius or 195 degrees Fahrenheit, and the fan kicks on right at 220 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

That's right what I'm seeing as well.

 

Well, Joaquin, if I have to be corrected, I am glad it's you doing it! As I wrote my post I suspected it didn't make too much sense, but despite the error, it appears as if the OP's thermostat is working just fine. Nothing to worry about there.

cheers!

phil

 

I have our 180 thermostat in so my readings while moving at all are 180 to 182. When in stop and go traffic, mid summer the highest I have seen is 215 to 220 before the fan kicks in. A trick I had heard about for driving the mini in extreme conditions is to turn the AC ON. Instead of making the car run hotter the fans are turned on and it brings your car back to normal , in my case 180 degrees. I recently checked this with my Scan Gage 2 and i was pleasantly surprised.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Flex-a-lite has a nice fan controller that you can tie into the stock fan and adjust your own run on temp.

With the M7 thermostat you should rarely get over 190. But I found an additonal bleed hole also helped me.(the one is a bit small ?)

 

It doesn't happen very often, as you are usually right on.
That's pretty funny, Phil.
Right, the OP's cooling system seems to be proper working order.


Using the A/C to cool down makes sense, as the fan is kicked to stage 2 when you push the snowflake button.

 

I've found the same thing. Since I don't have a Scangauge, I use the built-in functions of the OBC to monitor coolant temp. I noticed that the coolant would stay cooler with the A/C clicked on. With the A/C off, the temp would creep up to the pre-programmed temperature that the fan clicks on. With the A/C on, the fan is set to go on when the line pressure exceeds a certain value (basically, having the A/C on exceeds this pressure). The fan then goes on high when the pressure exceeds another, higher, value.

 

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like I have nothing to worry about.

 

thought aircon was a hp killer
have always turned heating on instead [windows down]

 

With the current price of gas I'm making my errand runs shorter. But short drives aren't good for a car; the car doesn't have a chance to warm up sufficiently to fully assure evaporation of overnight moisture buildup.

I'm considering purchase of a Scan Gauge II if for no other reason than to know I've driven a sufficient number of city miles to fully warm up my car.

Have any of you Scan Gauge owners determined how many miles you drive before your Scan Gauge indicated Coolant temperature reaches normal driving ambient?

 

chrono pack shows 90 c pretty much all the time
its the oil temp that creeps up when i give it some beans

 

Yeah, it takes a long time for oil to get up to steady-state temperature. Like 20+ minutes of highway driving. Coolant will be at temperature in 5 minutes.

 

Ambient temps Ranging anywhere from 50-115 I rarely see my coolant in ANY conditions go above 205 degrees with my AC on (Forces the coolant fan).

With the AC off it fluctuates anywhere from 190 to 230+ depending on traffic conditions.

Ambient temp doesn't have THAT much to do with coolant temps, because the delta's are so high. I normally see the same coolant temps when its 50 degrees out as I do when it's 90 out. It's really only when it gets above 100 that it starts creeping to 200-205.

IAT's vary depending on actual speed, but even driving hard I almost never see above a 15-20 degree temperature delta.

 

Yes! Oil can take 15-20 miles of highway driving before it's up to temp. With ambient temperture oil (80 degrees) it normally takes me a good 20 minutes of highway driving (3500 RPM's) to get it up to 190-200. My oil temps vary from 200-230 depending on driving style with the OEM "oil cooler".

You should always wait 10-15 minutes before beating on your car, even if your coolant is up to temp. Oil temps take much longer to come up, and low temperature oil is much thicker than heated oil.