Skid plate supplier?

[Ranger]

Steve D wrote:

[quote]jlevie wrote:

The oil pan has a lot of surface that is exposed to airflow if the “legal” skid plate isn’t used. If you have a skid plate it blocks the airflow and the pan temperature will be higher.

Yes, but the pan can only be as hot as the source of the heat, which is the oil. The pan cannot be hotter than the oil unless something else is heating it. If those “test results” are valid, I will eat my hat. Here we have another perceived problem based on faulty evidence.[/quote]

Steve, I love ya man, but in this subject we’re in my world. You know about making money and I know about heat. Mechanical engineers take an assload of classwork in thermo and heat transfer, and I took graduate work in the stuff.

The engine is not a static source of heat, nor is any part of it in a temperature equilibrium. There are numerous heat sources and numerous mechanisms where heat is leaving the “system” as defined by the block, head and oil pan. Just because coolant might leave the block at 210deg doesn’t mean that’s the temp of the block. Just because the oil is 225deg that doesn’t mean that’s the temp of the pan. And there’s temp gradients between inner and outer surfaces of the pan, and top to bottom of the pan.

It is perfectly reasonable for 225deg oil to be in a 190deg oil pan that has lots of air flow past it. It is also perfectly reasonable for the pan to be at 235deg when air flow is blocked. It is perfectly reasonable for 210deg water to exit a 250deg engine block.

[Steve_D]

Ranger wrote:

Mechanical engineers take an assload of classwork in thermo and heat transfer, and I took graduate work in the stuff.

I have the advantage of my thought process being unencumbered by knowledge, preconceptions and/or intelligence. It is a freeing experience.

It is perfectly reasonable for 225deg oil to be in a 190deg oil pan that has lots of air flow past it. It is also perfectly reasonable for the pan to be at 235deg when air flow is blocked. It is perfectly reasonable for 210deg water to exit a 250deg engine block.

As a layman, my assumption is that even with the F3P skid plate in place, there is air flow around the oil pan. Significantly reduced, but it is there. Some of it comes through the oil cooler, so it is above ambient. Some through the radiator, ditto. But the pan is by no means sealed off.

I don’t know the temperature of the block under full load. I never thought it would make me or the car faster for me to know.

I imagine the temp is higher near the combustion chambers than at the bottom (bold assumption 'cuz that’s where the engineers put the water jacket). Even if there is tremendous heat at the bottom of the block, are the little oil pan bolts ('cuz the rest is insulated by the OP gasket?) going to transmit enough heat to the pan that a couple quarts of liquid can’t absorb the heat to reach an equilibrium?

PS - The point of the F3P plate, in my opinion, is to increase your chance of a glancing blow on the oil pan rather than having it “catch” on whatever curb or off-track obstacle you are bounding over. The plate is not - and should not reasonably be - designed to support the weight of the car to keep it off the pan when you go out of bounds. You could drill several 1" diameter holes in the leading 1/3 of the plate and get pretty good air flow across the pan and still have most of the protection you could reasonably expect from the plate.

[kishg]

fascinating discussion but i’m not really concerned about a few degrees higher pan temp with the skid pad on.