Should I Buy An Oil Temp Gauge?

Title says most of it.
My Dauntless-powered Jeep lives in ID and I'll be driving it in cold and warm temperatures over the seasons. I'm planning to do some slower trails, the Rubicon being the end goal and hardest caliber of trail I'll do with it. I may eventually do some wheeling in hotter places like Moab. I've got a water temp gauge on the short list so I can more accurately guess weather or not I'll need cooling upgrades. I already have a working oil pressure gauge in it.

 

Oil temp gauges are normally associated with air cooled engines. I've never heard of one for a liquid cooled engine. I think the water temp gauge would tell you all you need to know. Oil temp seems redundant.

 

I have one and don't pay much attention and my focus is usually on coolant temp. On the other hand, I have an auto tranny and I pay close attention to my trans oil temp. It can go very high and I have a cooling fan just for this reason. I also check my fuel pressure gauge quite a bit. Vapor lock is a tricky one and I fought with it for a long time but finally figured it out.

 

Not necessarily. I've used one for decades. That will tell you when things are going amiss well before the oil pressure bottom outs. It will also tell you when an oil cooler is a valuable enhancement. I look at the oiling system as a parallel cooling circuit to the coolant system.

I also have one on the D18. That should give one some warning when the gear lube is running low. But since those never leak, I suppose it is redundant in that application.

 

Water cooled VWs starting in the later 70’s through at least to the late 80’s (at least Scirocco) came from the factory with VDO oil temp gauges. Its not unusual to see an oil temp gauge in older German cars, but they were designed for the Autobahn.
I’ve also had one in my (watercooled) Vanagon since I bought it in ‘93. The original 2.1L four worked hard to push a big shoebox down the road at 70 mph. For 2-3 hours, oil temps would run 230F to 250F, then it would start climbing higher. Dropping the speed back to 65 mph would bring the oil temps back down. Push the van to 75+ mph, and oil temps would climb above 250F within 20 minutes. A big remote oil cooler in the airstream tamed high oil temps for me, except speeds over 80mph. Sustained high RPMs are generally what raises oil temps, and heavy loads can contribute.
My van needs an oil temp gauge, just like a Winnabago needs an ATF temp gauge. When you are working an engine or transmission hard, usually due to high speed and heavy loads, you need to monitor oil and/or transmission fluid temperatures.
For a Jeep CJ, especially Dauntless powered, I really don’t think an oil temp gauge is needed, unless your Jeep is equipped with the factory camper or towing a big Airstream camper. A water temp gauge is more than adequate to monitor your engine. Water temps in our Jeeps tend to run hotter at slow speeds, but generally cool well at road speeds. A good aftermarket water temp gauge would be advisable, but an oil temp gauge really isn’t needed unless you’re doing something exceptional.
-Donny

 

Thank you all. Since I have an OD and will be moving to 33s, my highway driving should be under 2500 for the most part, and that'll be at higher speeds anyways. I'll buy the water temp gauge only.

 

On a new engine or a marginal engine sure, it can help save you from a big headache... if you are watching it. Otherwise it's another hole in the dash and another thing to fail.

The other issue... how do you plan to install the sender? That time spent installing the thing is better spent on things that go.

I'ld definitely be more concerned about D18 temp I've had mine HOT!!! And it can save an expensive overdrive unit from failure.

I've thought of some chevy ptu overtemp switches that feed idiot lights. Transmission, transfer case, rear axle, and sure engine oil...
But I'm running 5.38 axles, plowing snow, towing pop-ups, with a mix of engine parts assembled on a trailer in a field. Even if I had guages and lights they would not have saved my rear axle...
It went over temp while being towed.

If you have a stock motor there is no reason to be concerned.

 

I use SW mechanical temp gauges exclusively. In my 6 decades of doing that, not one failure. Perhaps just me, but I like to see what is transpiring. That is one aspect of some aftermarket EFI's that is really nice, being able to screen all the sensor outputs.

 

All you need are:
Attitude Indicator (AI), Heading Indicator (HI), Turn Coordinator, Airspeed Indicator, Altimeter, and the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI).


Most of that can be found on a phone app.
The rest is played by ear.

 

Show the fuel guage!!

 

That's the classic. My neighbor has a '63 'Vette and he has a marked wooden plunger handle to check it. On my Jeep I just pop the cap and shine a light down there because I don't know how or if the fuel gauge is actually working.

 

I have a stick like Howard posted for a Model T. I'm not sure how that managed to survive around here for 90 something years but found that in the log "garage" on the place several decades back. My late father's first vehicle was a T.

And a VSI is extremely important if one is going for maximum speed in any of the 4 cylinder Jeeps.

 

I would put in an attitude indicator, but that would only stress me out more as I turn with my ultra-light power steering. I prefer to learn naturally, as I pick up a tire on a hard braking turn.

 

That's why you need the turn coordinator...

 

That'll only help if I welded on a rudder. Which, all things considered, may actually help out.