Power Wagon Registry

Last summer while I was towing my 9500 lb loaded toy hauler for the first time, I switched over to see how my engine oil temp was doing and I panicked when I saw the results. It was around 115 degrees Celsius or just past the 75 % mark on the gauge travelling at about 65-70 mph on flat ground. Now admittedly, I know little about the actual temps that the oil should be in this or any engine. I also never thought much about it in my previous vehicles as I never had a digital oil temp readout. I simply monitored the water temp and made sure it didn't exceed 230 degrees Fahrenheit for prolonged periods.
Knowing I was heading into the mountains, I stopped and got an oil change and put in amsoil synthetic so as to feel more comfortable about the inevitable increase in temps while climbing in the mountains. If I remember correctly, the oil temps in the mountains were around 120 -125 degrees Celsius while climbing and at one point it hit 130 degrees ( 80% on gauge) temporarily.

My questions are:
1: how do you members who live in the hotter areas of the USA deal with towing in the mountains?
2: can you add an additional electric fan or engine oil cooler?
3: do you also use synthetic oil?
4: are these temperatures normal and am I just being paranoid?

I live in Arizona, and when I tow through the mountains I just tow in the morning when it's cooler. I use synthetic, but an additional oil cooler would be nice, not just for the additional cooling but for the extra oil. That would help to keep it cooler as well.

When i had my 2004 2500 Ram 4x4 Hemi/auto QC, I had a 24 row transmission cooler put on & i installed a 6 pass 1.5"x10"x21" engine oil cooler w/turbulator tubes. & am engine oil filter adaptor. http://www.shop.perma-cool.com/1318-HD- ... W-1318.htm (this is a little overkill @ 30,000 lbs) DO NOT get the barbed hose connections. Perma-Cool said they were good to 300 psi but my truck blew off the hose & clamp (that was tightened as far as they would go) & thanks to my quick reflexes, no damage was done, but it looked like NASCAR with all the white smoke. I sent it back & got one with threaded ends. I had a hydraulic hose shop make me up some threaded high psi hoses.

IMHO, there is no such thing as too cool on a 100*+ day, towing max load up a 6% grade. The set up i had was awesome. In Ky, we went up a 20 minute hill that was VERY steep. I had it pinned to the carpet with those 2 coolers on & my engine temp gauge only went up the width of the needle. I can just assume the trans was the same. Numerous people were pulled over to the side & overheating. Our camper was 10,500 lbs. It had 4.10's & the tow pkg & HD cooling pkg.

Yes, i use full synthetic. Yes, i have pulled our 10,500 lb camper with our PW with NO additional coolers. No issues. But i did not do Eisenhower Pass on a 100*+ day either. I still have my engine oil cooler from my old truck. I will probably reinstall it on the PW when we go out west in the summer, after we retire.

Coolers don't care if it is trans oil or engine oil. All they do is cool.

I did have to take it off for winter. Oil ran so cool that condensation in the oil became an issue.

My gut feeling, probably just being paranoid. I'd be more worried about trans temp than engine oil temp tbh.
The GM/Chevy 2500's I was looking at had a trans temp gauge on the dash, which was neat. With my 05 I've got to plug into the computer to get it (Not difficult, but ... not gauge-on-dash simple either).

I trust the idiot lights, I guess.

Silverthorne (8,730 feet) to the Eisenhower tunnel (11,013 feet) (∆=2300 feet) is about an 8 mile climb.... uphill till you get to the top.
Keep the trans in one gear as much as possible, and let 'er rip. Yeah, it gets warm (coolant temp just a hair over centerline) but never hot enough to flash lights on the dash.
(To be fair, I rarely drive that way in the summer, and even then it never gets to 100°F at 8k+ ft... there's usually still snow up there).

My old half-ton *hated* that pull with the trailer. If I got a good run from the bottom (65-70 before it started really going uphill) and nobody cut me off halfway up, i'd slow down to ~30 by the tunnel. If I had to let off, I was doing 25 the rest of the way up.
It's really no wonder the crank was cracked and valves were burned to hell.

I like the idea of running an engine oil cooler to keep the temp down while towing. In the future, I'd like to do a big trip down south and the extra cooling is a benefit as I would like to visit Arizona and New Mexico. Big climbs and hot temps. I think I'll talk to my mechanic at work and see what he thinks about creating a oil cooler bypass for the cold winter months here in Canada so that I don't have to remove it in the winter.
My transmission temps never seem to get to extreme which is a nice surprise.

The DiabloSport Trinity tuner allows you to view all the different temps that are tied to the computer in real time. I've got spark and spark advance , oil/tranny temps plus throttle % on my main screen just to keep and eye on everything while traveling and pulling a trailer. It's pretty convenient for that.

Stickman wrote:The DiabloSport Trinity tuner allows you to view all the different temps that are tied to the computer in real time. I've got spark and spark advance , oil/tranny temps plus throttle % on my main screen just to keep and eye on everything while traveling and pulling a trailer. It's pretty convenient for that.

The Diablo tuner is an upgrade that is in my future. It would be great to have all that data. I do however have a digital temp gauge readout for the transmission. Not sure if that's an option that comes with the Laramie package or if it is in all 2013 trucks and over.

R0NAN wrote:

Stickman wrote:The DiabloSport Trinity tuner allows you to view all the different temps that are tied to the computer in real time. I've got spark and spark advance , oil/tranny temps plus throttle % on my main screen just to keep and eye on everything while traveling and pulling a trailer. It's pretty convenient for that.

The Diablo tuner is an upgrade that is in my future. It would be great to have all that data. I do however have a digital temp gauge readout for the transmission. Not sure if that's an option that comes with the Laramie package or if it is in all 2013 trucks and over.

Yes the 2013 and up trucks have a trans temp gauge in the display. (My truck is an SLT PW) The one I pull up when towing is the screen that shows oil pressure, oil temp, trans temp, and a few more I don't recall off the top of my head. I just pulled a 28' inclosed car hauler with a 69 mach 1 from NC to Iowa and never felt any of my temps were high at all. Total trailer weight with car and a few other things I figure was in the 8000 to 8500 lb range so not max load by any means but not a light load either.

Alot of the newer vehicles go into limp mode when the oil temps get to high. To name a few cars. The new vette (it pulls timing, so it runs really bad), the mustang (rpm limited), the 370Z (rpm limited) go into limp mode at around 260F. on oil temps. for trucks, I don't know which ones yet. For track use. I installed a 34 oil cooler on my Nismo. After 30 minutes on the track. The temps on it is around 220F, before 280F. The connections on that set-up is all AN fittings. You can buy oil cooler kits, and change them over to AN fittings. Or piece one together yourself. Just need the spin-on adapter for the oil filter, AN fittings, ss covered hose, and a cooler. You can plump in a temp gauge too. I have a Setrab cooler on my Nismo. On my PW. I have a deep tranny pan that has a temp gauge sensor in it, plus I have the 1 ton tranny cooler too. Pulling a 10,000 lbs camper. The tranny gauge never seen over 260F. That was from a dead stop to the top of Cooper's Rocks hill on I68 out of Morgantown WV. 8% grade for 4 miles. 1st gear almost all the way to the top. Hit 2nd when the top of the hill started to level out.

I sure am glad I picked up a 2010 now after hanging with and reading some issues with the 3rd gens. I take a lot of this for granted... Mine came with trans and oil temp gauge, and oil and trans cooler from factory. Only had to add a gooseneck, even had a brake controller.

Sent from my KYOCERA-E6560 using Tapatalk

Those of you who would like a thermostatic bypass after market kit this is one of the better ones I have seen out there.
http://www.etrailer.com/p-D15450.html

Here is one from Rock auto.
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinf ... 500&jpid=1

Not too sure I like the factory engine oil cooler but the parts including adapter and cooler can be found here.
They seem to use a heat exchanger located in the lower radiator hose. I suspect that this is more for emissions and mileage, to get the oil hotter sooner. This would not do much cooling in a towing application. It would however add heat load to the coolant system.
http://www.mopar.com/ram/1500/2012/shop ... /153/5243/


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azracer wrote:Those of you who would like a thermostatic bypass after market kit this is one of the better ones I have seen out there.
http://www.etrailer.com/p-D15450.html

Here is one from Rock auto.
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinf ... 500&jpid=1

Not too sure I like the factory engine oil cooler but the parts including adapter and cooler can be found here.
They seem to use a heat exchanger located in the lower radiator hose. I suspect that this is more for emissions and mileage, to get the oil hotter sooner. This would not do much cooling in a towing application. It would however add heat load to the coolant system.
http://www.mopar.com/ram/1500/2012/shop ... /153/5243/


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The Derale coolers on the etrailer link seem to be the way to go. The thermostatic switch will eliminate the worries in the winter, assuming 180 degrees is hot enough to keep the oil from becoming moist. They are nice and compact. Upon reading the questions and answer section, I realized that by cooling the engine oil, the transmission oil should also stay a bit cooler based on the fact that the tranny cooler is sandwiched against the engine radiator. If the engine radiator is cooler due to cooler oil temps, then there shouldn't be as much heat transfer to the rad cooler.
Thanks for the input everyone!

Just a note on the thermostatic plate. They do not close off completely when cold. They still have some oil flow through them (roughly 5% to 10% open). This is because you don't want COLD oil flowing into the system when the thermostatic plate opens up. Also it depends on who makes the thermostatic plate, is what temp they open up.

Stay away from mishimoto thermostatic plates. They have cost a few people an engine or 4. When they are assembled. The o-rings get cut, allowing oil to escape when pressure builds. BIG thread on them on the Z forum.

Just as an FYI, on my 14 PW when pulling my trailer (weighs around 7500lbs loaded) on a 31 C day my oil temp was consistently right around 107 degrees Celsius. At one point I had to go across a river bridge in slow traffic then punch it up a steep grade. The oil temp did rise and peaked at 118 degrees Celsius.

With my 2013 pulling approximately 3000lbs at 75-80 mph in Arizona my oil temp gets to 230 degrees F. I think I have had it to 240 once which I think is pretty high but I have never maxed the gauge out. Amazing my transmission temps never get over 175 no matter how much weight im towing or what the temp is outside.

jsemm wrote:With my 2013 pulling approximately 3000lbs at 75-80 mph in Arizona my oil temp gets to 230 degrees F. I think I have had it to 240 once which I think is pretty high but I have never maxed the gauge out. Amazing my transmission temps never get over 175 no matter how much weight im towing or what the temp is outside.

Same here. My '13 is the same here in AZ. Where are you located?

SheepdogOutdoorsman wrote:

jsemm wrote:With my 2013 pulling approximately 3000lbs at 75-80 mph in Arizona my oil temp gets to 230 degrees F. I think I have had it to 240 once which I think is pretty high but I have never maxed the gauge out. Amazing my transmission temps never get over 175 no matter how much weight im towing or what the temp is outside.

Same here. My '13 is the same here in AZ. Where are you located?

Im in Silver City, NM. I travel through Arizona to go to Glamis.

Send a PM when you're coming through the Phoenix area... We'll grab a bite and a beer!

SheepdogOutdoorsman wrote:Send a PM when you're coming through the Phoenix area... We'll grab a bite and a beer!

Ok, might be going to a few football games this fall there Ill let you know.

jsemm wrote:

SheepdogOutdoorsman wrote:Send a PM when you're coming through the Phoenix area... We'll grab a bite and a beer!

Ok, might be going to a few football games this fall there Ill let you know.

Cell4Soul lives right down the street from me ... We'll grab him too!