The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I want to fit two oil temperature sensors to my sprint engine but can't think of a sensible place to put them.
Bearing in mind that my engine will be dry sumped, the oil will be being fed into oil housing plate above the standard pump. The standard pump and filter will be being blocked off. I could put a sensor on this plate but this will be after the cooler. I was wondering if there was anywhere sensible on the block or head that I could fit these sensors, having had a good look I can't see anywhere though. This really only leaves me with putting them in the oil return line from the pump to the tank but fitting then in the space could be tricky.

Mine is in the return line from the oil cooler, but also between the engine and the oil thermostat. I am trying to read the oil temperature as being circulated from the pump, via the cooler, to the engine.

Geoff

I can't speak from automotive experience but in general from an industrial instrumentation perspective you'd fit them as the oil enters/exits the 'machine', whatever the machine may be. Others may be added within the machine or cooling system if deemed necessary but those two are your square 1 starting point. Is your cooling system over/under working and is your machine producing more heat then expected?

If you suspect or fear hot spots in the head then consider some thermocouples, there are an increasing number of small data loggers available that should do the job. If I ever get my sprintfire project going I plan to do just that, 5 thermocouples along the inlet side of the head. They won't be robust enough on my budget to be a permanent fit. I'm interested to compare the results with standard cooling plumbing vs TR7 sprint plumbing. I expect to find less temperature gradient across the head with the rear water outlet fitted.

tinweevil wrote:If I ever get my sprintfire project going I plan to do just that, 5 thermocouples along the inlet side of the head. They won't be robust enough on my budget to be a permanent fit. I'm interested to compare the results with standard cooling plumbing vs TR7 sprint plumbing. I expect to find less temperature gradient across the head with the rear water outlet fitted.

Hope you do manage to conduct this testing Julian.

From a Ted Middleton article in Dolly Mixture, I gather the hottest part of a slant four cooling system is the back of the cylinder head. With that in mind
I have the heater inlet on my 1850 plumbed into the transfer housing (early 1850s have plugs fitted, so it is a case of (carefully) removing that and fitting
a hosetail). On the usual water/antifreeze coolant the performance of the heater is dramatically improved over standard.

Now I using Evans waterless coolant. It seems the heater is not as good, which if true suggests that the coolant no longer has the back of the head as a hotspot?
Tony MacKillop has an article coming up in DM on his observations of EC in a standard 1850.


I suggest your experiment will be usefully expanded to not only compare cooling systems but also different coolants.




Ian.

My dry sump will have 1 in the filter housing
And 1 in the bottom of the engine pan by the scavenge
Temp in and out,