Dash display - e36 328 Track Car

[fbirch]

Nope, it's a function of how long it actually takes the oil to come up to temperature on these engines. Big cast iron block plus generous oil capacity equals lots of thermal mass.

I've measured mine both at an oil distribution block on the oil filter housing and in the oil pan. Readings aren't very different between the two places, so it's more a matter of convenience. The oil filter housing area was a bit crowded when I had both oil temp and pressure senders there, plus the low oil pressure warning switch and the VANOS line, so I found it tidier to remote mount the oil pressure and move oil temp to the pan. YMMV.

Neil

Just to be clear I'm following - you're saying that the ODB block and oil pan sensor locations behave the same in two respects: (a) The rate at which temperature reading rises, and (b) The final, steady state temperature reading? If so, that's good to know.

[NeilM]

Just to be clear I'm following - you're saying that the ODB block and oil pan sensor locations behave the same in two respects: (a) The rate at which temperature reading rises, and (b) The final, steady state temperature reading? If so, that's good to know.

Yes, at least generally similar — I've never run the two sensing methods simultaneously, and there are other variables in play. In theory I might expect the ODB to read a bit higher just from being close to the combustion chamber, but I haven't seen this to be the case. But that really doesn't matter either way. We're mostly concerned only with whether the oil is cold, up to temperature, or whoa that's hot! Unless one sensing location were to read a lot differently from the other — say 15 or 20 degrees, and that's certainly not the case — then there's no different action to be taken.

Neil