Earls Oil Thermostat Bad....?
 

Im having an over heating problem and narrowed it down to the oil system. I have the earls performance oil thermostat and dual b and m oil coolers. I have a single turbo kit with all the supporting mods. Here are the symtams and tell me what you think.

Car had a seal go and then I started to have a problem with temps.

Car had a power fc reading water temp and a oil temp gauge(in the oil thermostat) and a water temp gauge(by the water fill neck). I cleaned out the dual oil cooler system up front. All the lines and both oil coolers. They flow free. I blew them out and had a hard time with the first line. I think something in the thermostat was stuck. Drained the oil and got most of the oil out of the car. The car has a fresh motor in it and had 100 miles on the oil change.

Took the car out on the road and the car drove great. Temps went to 170-180 water, 85 on the power fc, and 180 on the oil. Car ran for about 10 miles like this. Then all of a sudden the oil temp jumped to 210 real quick and rose to 240. water temp went up to 195-205 and 94 on the power fc.

I got off the high way and stopped at a light and the car when back down to 200 oil, 180 water and 90 power fc. Then i got back on the highway and had a slight incline and the oil temp rose to 250, water 210 and 100 power fc with the heat on full blast.

I live in vegas and the temp was a cool 85 out. I dont know what happens to the oil thermostat when it gets real hot but i dont think it good for it. The local rotory shop is stumped too. I am hoping someone can help me out. I know its bad to not run a thermostat but im about to pull it out and see if it is that.

You do have the under tray/panel on the car don't you?
Since the temps go up on the highway it sounds like you don't.
If this is not installed then temps will rise due to poor air flow through the radiator and oil coolers.

Pulling the thermostat out this time of year in Vegas should not hurt the oil coolers.
Might want to test that the e-fans are working. They should be on full speed at the temps you are seeing.

My temps go up when I idle in traffic and down when I'm on the highway which I think is "normal" if everything is working as designed.

I put an under tray on and made the car run worse. The fans are running full blast too. What i have a problem with is the high oil temps with a dual oil cooler set up. The car use to run at 180 and 180 all the time without an under tray.

I had a similar problem with a Mocal oilstat.

Replaced it and the problem went away.

Run the car up until the oil is hot enough to open the oilstat.
That is usually 180f, so run it up to 190f.

Then go feel the coolers and see if they have warmed up.
Check the lines too. Be cautious, as they are hot!

Better yet, use a pyrometer. I didn't have one so I felt the lines.

If in doubt, just replace the oilstat.

A $100 part is cheaper than a new motor.

The Mocal oil thermostat is known to fail. I have problems with 2 of them on my car. First one stuck closed 2 or 3 times in about 4 years and the second one would open too soon making oil temps slow to rise. When stuck closed, the faster you'd go, the higher temps would get. When working right, oil and water temps always ran w/in 10-F of each other (water sender near spark plugs in rear plate & oil sender at base of oil filter).

In the new FD I'm putting together, I won't be running any thermostat on the oil lines.

Jack

I bought a new oil thermostat and hope that it fixes the problem. I felt the oil coolers and they felt cool to the touch. It just sucks that i have an oil problem on a new motor.