Checking temperature

Just for the heck of it while mowing this morning I checked temps of engine and drives with infrared gun.
Here in central Oklahoma it getting hot, when I started it was 82 and 85 when I finished.

I have a Husqvarna 4623 zero turn, it has dreaded kohler courage and hydro gear EZT drives.
At 20 min. Oil filter was at 180* and block was 142*, drives were at 126*
At 40 min oil was 200* block was 155*, drives were 135*
At one hr oil was 212* block 168*, drives were 140* this was after mowing my thickest pat of lawn.
At 1 hr and 20 min when I finished oil was 200*,block 150* and drives were 148*

As of today mower has 87.8 hrs.
I bought mower at Husqvarna dealer 4/26/13, I wasn't sure that we needed a zero turn so I went low end on first one just to see (will never go back to lawn tractor)
Plan to run this as long as it will go just to see how long EZT drives will last, so far no problem with engine or drives.
I'll revive this thread if problems show up.
Mike.

Since 2011 when I first joined you are the only one I have seen to ever publish heat figures and that is great! But tell how you measured oil temp with a gun? No one here has ever said anything about expected surface temps. My Intek runs oil between 240F and 300F measured on an oil temp gauge reading a probe sticking through the drain plug into the sump. Anything above 280F bothers me and I stop and cool down at 300F. This is also mowing at about 85F with 3 full baskets.

Thanks motoman, I don't know how close it is but I was shooting infrared gun at oil filter, I have an extra plug on oil filter housing and have thought of putting temp or pressure gage on it.
The highest temp in 1hr 20 min was 217* on filter, on block I was shooting middle of engine, on drives it was middle of front,
Engine was at full throttle.

"IF" these AC engines run about the same then in normal temp range the filter housing and filter are pulling ? 240F(mine)-215F(yours)=35F off the oil? I know this is a long reach. There are several good gauge kits available on line. And I also have the Lowes pn for the Briggs (Intek) pipe-threaded OD, temp sender OD plug, in brass (one piece adapter). That is for those who do not want to drill and tap their sump plug. My gauge has been on about 3 years without a problem (vibrations , etc). There used to be some finned aluminum sleeves that fit oil filters. Have not pursued them. If available they might pull off another 10-15F? Poor man's oil cooler :laughing:

Another ref point for you . Several summers ago I set up a temp probe on the head. It was the classic VW-type spark plug sender. Results @ 85F ambient: 305F.

Edit 2: Re finned filter sleeves. Scrap the idea. Chatter on several Harley blogs says a waste and no detectable drop in temp with the finned sleeves, even with motorcycle air blast.

I've been running Rotella t15w40 for about 20 years in all my small engines, I don't know if that would keep it any cooler or not, what do you use ?

OIL is like an emotional magnet here...I do not believe synthetic oil runs cooler, but it does work better at low temps . I now run Mobil 1 5W-30 only because it is common to wife's car. It is well established that thinner oil cools better, but (IMO) AC engines and hi po car engines are built with more piston/bore clearance and so do consume some oil. The Intek does require topping after a couple hours-about 2 oz, partly because I have a little leak on one valve cover, but mostly normal consumption. Consumer reports has just gone anal on the "bad cars" which use some oil-I won't comment, but wonder what real world experience their "engineers" have.

Oh I know about the oil and many many views LOL.
Only reaso I use Rotella 15w40 is I had trucking company and when I sold out we had a 55 gal drum of it left so I use it in my pickup and small engines, I've never had a problem using it in small engine.
Just for a test I might put 10w30 in it next change and see what temps are, I have 2 quarts of casterol gtx.
As a matter of fact I'm courious now and will change just to see on next mow ?

gainestruk said:

Thanks motoman, I don't know how close it is but I was shooting infrared gun at oil filter, I have an extra plug on oil filter housing and have thought of putting temp or pressure gage on it.
The highest temp in 1hr 20 min was 217* on filter, on block I was shooting middle of engine, on drives it was middle of front,
Engine was at full throttle.

Click to expand...

....excellent work, fella, I have always used my hands and count 1, 000 1 1, 000.
Yeah, stooopid :laugh:

Point being I could not tell you a temp range beyond "hot" and " bloody hot"!
Your work has convinced me to go buy a gun. We get 40C plus ambients here
and often from 7AM till 5PM.

Thanks

KK

When cooking bacon you can press your palm onto the skillet edge , but not for long. Think of that as 350F. but seriously...the better DVMs have temp probes. This can end your guesswork. I tried making a probe and using the dipstick tube to get sump temp. You are rewarded with a hot oil spattered face from case pressure, but a better idea of how hot these bad boy AC engnes are. :wink:

Edit, Incidentally, Unless your engine is a lot smoother than mine go to electric sender for oil pressure gauge. I tried and failed at least 4 times to keep the little tube and fittings tight at the filter connection and was rewarded 4 times with separation and an oil splattered driveway. The electrics are more expensive and the "can" sender is kinda big but no problems after 3-4 years.

Ok guy's, here is my 2nd test.
Like I said last post I changed oil and filter with 2 quarts Quaker state 5w30 full synthetic that I had for generator.
(I know I said 10w30 but it turned out to be synthetic 5w30)

Now this gets interesting, the ambenent temp was 80* at start and 83* at finish which was only 2* cooler than last time.
20 min. Oil filter=160*, block=127.5*, drives=100.7*
40 min. =166.6* =136.7* =114.0*
60 min. =174.5* =133.7* =117.6*
80 min. =178.1* =138.0* =128.2*
90 min. =178.0* =155.6* =129.1* (this was at finish after mowing Heaviest part of lawn)

Running at about same conditions including grass thickness I'm running about 50* cooler filter temp and block was about the same.
When checking filter I try to always shoot infra red light at center of filter.

I wasn't expecting to see that much difference between regular 15w40 oil and full synthetic.

Now how about some peer review research, see if anyone else can show same result with regular oil and synthetic.

Mike Gaines