OIL TEMP GOING UP TO 220 AND OIL PRESSURE LOW, -20 outside

[Petrella]

Hello, the temperature outhere right now is about -20 degrees, when i start my truck in the morning oil pressure is ok, oil temp is normal (i have a gauge) when i get going down the road, my oil temp jumps to 220 degrees, and the oil pressure gets real low(about 2 lines from red) my oil temp doesnt get that high when im towing a trailer in 95 degree weather, and its so cold outside its climbing to 220. I touched both oil lines to the cooler and both seem to be warm??? the only thing i can think of is a restriction in the oil cooler or one of the oil lines. ill wait till it gets warmer out and try it again

Anthony

1994 GMC K1500 6.5 TD 4x4
Banks Exhaust system
16x8 American Racing Wheels
285/75/r16 BFG All terrains
Alpine stereo System
Alpine Alarm System
Boost Controller
Autometer Boost,Pyro,tranny,and oil temp gauges
Fuel cooler
FSD Cooler, from my GM Dealer
currently 102,000 miles

[mtmike]

When you say that your oil temp is going to 220 deg., are you actually reading the stock temp guage in the dash? If so, the problem might be that your antifreeze is not up to snuff in -20 temps and highway speed airflow thru the radiator. I had this happen to a gas motor once down in New Mexico during a bad cold snap. It froze my coolant in the radiator causing high engine temps and the oil press. to drop. Hope this helps.

[Petrella]

no no no, not the water temp, thats normal. I have an oil temperature aftermarket gauge

[tom.mcinerney]

Sounds like no airflow thru cooler. Maybe frost collected on the 'pad' of dirt/dust/vegetable+insect remains on the radiator (or condenser) just aft of the oil cooler? {look behind cooler?}

[rjwest]

Very rare to see in truck. But you may have congelled oil in cooler...... Heavy, dirty oil will restrict it. best clean out the cooler....

[Petrella]

i change my oil every 4000 km, i use shell rotella. the oil has about 2000 kilometers on it, and the cooler is clean. you pull my dipstick and the oil is clear not black. But today was a lot warmer outside and didnt have no problem at all. When it was -20 outside, driving down the road at 65 mph would make that cooler feel like -60, so im just assuming i got some real thick oil stuck in there cause of the cold weather.

[diesel joe]

I had this problem with my 89 with a 6.5. Although I didn't have an oil temp guage, I did have low oil pressure at 0 degrees and colder. It would start up and show 60lbs. but then about 1/2 mile down the road until about 3 miles the pressure would show 20 lbs and then slowly increase as the engine temp got to normal.

I finally determined that the oil wasn't draining back to the crankcase fast enough for the pump to pick it up and thus was starving for oil. A change to Rotella Synthetic 5w-40 cured the problem. Last week it was 30 below, and no problems. This has become my year around oil of choice.

Hope this info helps.

[tom.mcinerney]

Anthony, Diesel Joe:
Do you use block heaters?

[Kennedy]

Sounds like maybe the cooler bypass valve is not functioning properly, or you have a large leak somewhere internally...

[Petrella]

yep i do use my block heater, and its been warmer the last couple of days and everythings normal. Its supposed to drop back down to -20 tonight so i will check it again on the way to work

[Marty Lau]

The airplanes I used to fly would have the oil pressure drop in real cold weather but not show signs of oil pressure drop on the engine. What would happen is that there was a very thin line that oil was in to send to the gauge for a pressure reading. The oil in the gauge line would get congelled and pressure indication would drop. The way we sovled that was to fill the line with hydralic fluid.