All,

I've got 5000 miles on my conversion now and have worked out many of the bugs. MOST of my gauges now work too. =) My question is, what should a normal temperature range for Oil and Transmission fluids be?

The car is a 1985 745 with a '96 LT1 and 4L60E. The radiator is a new volvo plastic/aluminum diesel radiator, 2 row 14 fins/inch with built in coils for transmission fluid. I have a volvo 4"x8"? 700 series transmission cooler in front of the radiator. The A/C condensor is in front of all that. The transmission has a B&M deep pan with "fins" and synthetic ATF. Oil is 5-30w synthetic. There is no oil cooler.

My water temperature probe is in the head and connected to a VDO water temp gauge. My oil temperature probe is in the drain plug of the pan and connected to a VDO water temp gauge. My transmission temp probe is in the side of the transmission pan and connected to a VDO transmission temp gauge.

When cruising along the freeway @75mph and 70degrees ambient temp for an hour my gauges read the following:
Water: 180F
Oil: 245F
Tranny: 150-175F

I am confident that my water and oil temp gauges are working well. As I've never gotten a very high tranny temperature, I'm not sure the gauge is reading correctly. In addition the range is 150-400 so I don't have much resolution at the low end?The sending unit is matched to the gauge (both VDO of the same range) and when I ground the wire, I peg the gauge.

Does the tranny temperature seem right to you all? I've never measured tranny temp before... but I always assumed it would be higher.

How bad does the oil temp scare you? It seems awefully high to me. I'm thinking that I really need to add a oil cooler. What do you think?

Thanks for your thoughts!
-simon