Oil Temperature Warm up

Technical advice Q&A

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SimonBrown
Posts: 193
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2016 9:15 pm
Location: Solihull
Great Britain

#1 Oil Temperature Warm up

Post by SimonBrown » Thu Aug 07, 2025 8:57 pm

Good Evening
Would anyone know how long it takes for the engine oil to get up to temperature?
Outside temperature 20 deg c, mainly motorway driving at 60-70mph
Thanks
Simon Brown
1969 E Type Series 2 OTS
2013 F Type V6 Convertible
1975 Honda 400 Four

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Gfhug
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Location: Near Andover, Hampshire,in D.O. Blighty
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#2 Re: Oil Temperature Warm up

Post by Gfhug » Fri Aug 08, 2025 9:52 am

Simon, somewhere on here is a comment from the late Christopher Storey who had been told by CMC (?) that it was quite a significant distance (circa 20-40 miles or something of that magnitude, iirc) before the whole engine and hence oil got up to full temperature.
I’ve done a brief advanced search for either “temperature” or “CMC” written by Chris but haven’t found the relevant post.
Maybe others will recall his post.

Geoff
S2 FHC Light Blue
S2 OTS LHD - RHD full restoration

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MarekH
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#3 Re: Oil Temperature Warm up

Post by MarekH » Fri Aug 08, 2025 2:36 pm

Here are some experiences with my v12.

It'll take up to 10 minutes to just get water hot enough for the thermostats to open. (2nd graph, white trace)
The engine bay temperature will start to stabilise after about 10-15 minutes. (4th graph, yellow trace)

So drive around for at least 15-20 minutes. The graph shown is from t=0 to about t=35mins

The 4th graph, yellow trace is from an air temperature sensor mounted to the metal inlet manifold on the engine block, so reflects air flow inside but also heat being dissipated from the block into the manifold. It doesn't show any drops until after 18 minutes, so you'd guess the cylinder block is still warming up until then.

kind regards
Marek
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Series1 Stu
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#4 Re: Oil Temperature Warm up

Post by Series1 Stu » Fri Aug 08, 2025 10:45 pm

Hi

I think the 15 to 20 minute suggestion is definitely in the ball park. I have recently changed my daily driver for one that has a digital oil temperature readout. I didn't realise how much I would refer to it until I started using the car regularly. I'm sure that not all cars will be the same but mine seems to stabilise at around 101C after around 20 minutes of A road driving at 50 to 60mph.

Regards
Stuart

If you can't make it work, make it complicated!

'62 FHC - Nearing completion
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