[Dave2013]

Where should the 335i sit temp wise once its warm and also once its had 10 minutes of flat out fun?

I nudged past the halfway point (125c ish) yesterday with some spirited driving....just want to check all is well.

It ususally sits between 90-100c if I am normal driving.

[djgandy]

This time of year 100 on the motorway, edging up past 110 in town driving. 120's if you are giving it the beans.

Varies from car to car though. I drove in Spain last year, 40C heat. Never saw it go above 120c, which was surprising.

[Dave2013]

I just hadnt seen 125c before...I backed off and it came straight down but I dont like it going past halfway haha!

[AWSAWS]

Mine's a near constant 110? Not many motorway miles at all, and very few on a dual carriageway.

[KiwiRD]

Mine tends to sit on 110 or just under. If it's a cold day, it might stay around 100. If it's a hot day and it's been stationary in traffic or a lot of stop / start, it'll nudge the midway point.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by djgandy

This time of year 100 on the motorway, edging up past 110 in town driving. 120's if you are giving it the beans.

Varies from car to car though. I drove in Spain last year, 40C heat. Never saw it go above 120c, which was surprising.

You must not be trying hard enough

Even official BMW technical guide on the N54 unit mentions the difficulty of heat management.

I've seen 140 oil temp quite easily when doing B road blasts (revs constantly above 4-5k for > 10 minutes), given engine power is reduced from 150 onwards for component protection I have no idea how people can track these cars without going into limp mode.

My car may be worse because it's an auto unit, and the lower half of the water radiator is used to cool the gear box.

After market oil coolers are not reliable on the 335, and most will leak as I found out after installing the ER racewrek cooler. Unless you do what Marcel did and get custom made pre-formed metal cooling lines, OEM style.

Luckily I'm far too old to think about tracking my 335i, so not overly concerned about over heating. The 1M which also uses the N54 unit has an additional water radiator, which seems to help, but I think the air cooling on the 1 series must be better. I've never seen anyone one complain about limp mode on the 1M on the track, but 335i's owners with the additional water cooler fitted via the BMW PPK still get limp mode on the track.

As you can tell I've wasted far too much time and money looking at adding extra cooling to the 335i. I've just about given up on the idea of getting additional cooling hardware for the 335i, and accepting the fact the engine doesn't like to be worked close to its Rev limit for any sustained period

[djgandy]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

You must not be trying hard enough

Even official BMW technical guide on the N54 unit mentions the difficulty of heat management.

I've seen 140 oil temp quite easily when doing B road blasts (revs constantly above 4-5k for > 10 minutes), given engine power is reduced from 150 onwards for component protection I have no idea how people can track these cars without going into limp mode.

My car may be worse because it's an auto unit, and the lower half of the water radiator is used to cool the gear box.

After market oil coolers are not reliable on the 335, and most will leak as I found out after installing the ER racewrek cooler. Unless you do what Marcel did and get custom made pre-formed metal cooling lines, OEM style.

Luckily I'm far too old to think about tracking my 335i, so not overly concerned about over heating. The 1M which also uses the N54 unit has an additional water radiator, which seems to help, but I think the air cooling on the 1 series must be better. I've never seen anyone one complain about limp mode on the 1M on the track, but 335i's owners with the additional water cooler fitted via the BMW PPK still get limp mode on the track.

As you can tell I've wasted far too much time and money looking at adding extra cooling to the 335i. I've just about given up on the idea of getting additional cooling hardware for the 335i, and accepting the fact the engine doesn't like to be worked close to its Rev limit for any sustained period

Maybe manual makes a difference. Put it this way, I was going up some mountains at quite a rate :-) The brakes were the main worry I had.

[DR-JEKL]

Do pommy spec 335i come with factory oil coolers?

My car typically sits at 105-110 and during mountain runs/twisties around 120.

[djgandy]

Originally Posted by DR-JEKL

Do pommy spec 335i come with factory oil coolers?

My car typically sits at 105-110 and during mountain runs/twisties around 120.

I've heard mixed things. I think they either all do, or from early 07 build onwards it's standard. Mine has it (sept 07 build)

[MattOz]

They definitely have oil coolers. How effective the oil cooler is, is a different matter. My 335i sits at about 90-100 most of the time, with the occasional 110-120 after a spirited run. It did surprise me after my E60 M5 and M3 CS both ran 80-85 for the same type of driving.

Ideally I'd like to cool the oil more efficiently, but in reality, it needs to get seriously hot before it has an effect on performance. That's not going to happen in day to day driving.

[gangzoom]

All European 335i have an oil cooler, but its tiny.

I found honing up and down mountain passes didn't actually strain the engine that much, certainly the passes I did in Switzerland had so many blind hair pin corners you could barely go full throttle for more than 30 seconds before having to back off and take a hair pin.

Around where I live there are some lovely B roads, at 8am on a Sunday there is next to no traffic, and you can keep make very rapid progress by keeping the engine close to the red line through the twisty bits pretty much constantly for 10-15 miles with really having to back off that much....In that situation with-in 10 minutes or so my oil temp will hit close to 140, and I back off.

Originally Posted by MattOz

Ideally I'd like to cool the oil more efficiently, but in reality, it needs to get seriously hot before it has an effect on performance. That's not going to happen in day to day driving.

This is what I've decided, since I don't track the car I'm not wasting any more money/time on trying to fit extra cooling.....BMW do offer an petrol 3L twin turbo car with much better cooling hardware straight from the factory, only problem is it costs £50K+, and have lots of 'M' badges stuck on everywhere

[gangzoom]

Here you go...

The S55 engine has....7 (SEVEN) radiators for heat exchange + expansion tanks + 4 separate pumps !!!





As far as I'm aware the N54 units have only main water radiator (which double up as transmission cooler in auto cars), intercooler and one very small oil cooler, the PPK add any additional water cooler..



Hence our N54 cars will run hot/warm when pushed.

[texasjohn]

Just got an N54...

My commute is about 17 miles, so far this week the oil temp gauge barely moves off the 70 mark until I'm 2/3rds of the way home. First 12 miles is motorway at 60-70mph.

Sound normal?

Thanks in advance!

[AWSAWS]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Here you go...

The S55 engine has....7 (SEVEN) radiators for heat exchange + expansion tanks + 4 separate pumps !!!





As far as I'm aware the N54 units have only main water radiator (which double up as transmission cooler in auto cars), intercooler and one very small oil cooler, the PPK add any additional water cooler..



Hence our N54 cars will run hot/warm when pushed.

I remember seeing your original delve into getting a better cooling system and I always see you chime in on this topic.

Now you really are spending too much time on this stuff

However there must be a simple solution. Surely!!?

I was actually surprised how quickly my oil temp rose after a full throttle run at Santa Pod. Seemed to go from 110 to 120 in no time. All 15 seconds worth or so to the line and past a bit. (Oil change due in 3 months.) I'm not sure how much heat dual clutches might make and if they are linked like the AT?

Blame your wife for not letting you have the car with vents in the bonnet!

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by AWSAWS

Blame your wife for not letting you have the car with vents in the bonnet!

LoL, I think she is usually right about most things. I can live with the 25mpg average I'm getting from the 335, a M3 averaging <20mpg...Humm that would make me think twice about keeping it in the long term

As to the heat management issue, on manuals cars if you stick on an aftermarket oil cooler, get better air flow at the front, your just about OK. I know over the pound people have done all sorts, including using different coolant etc. Problem with aftermarket oil coolers is longterm realibity. If you look at the front of the engine bay, you can see there is very little room to be running larger coolant lines I think this is why the new M3/4 has the Intercooler above the engine, so to make room for additional oil/water coolers at the front of the engine bay.

Autocars (I believe DCT as well), also overheat from high water temperatures, the BMW PPK helps a bit, but you than still need to modify the air intakes.....

It's doable, you can get part rigid custom made oil cooler lines (all aftermarket lines currently are just braided off the shelf items, and vendors advise 'zip' ties to keep lines in place....Do you really trust 'zip ties' to keep oil lines in place bare in mind that the oil will be heated up to 140 degrees+), but a lot of effort and cost will be needed...which for me I've decided isn't worth it. I'll simply drive the car with-in it's heat limits, which is fine for 99.995% of daily driving duites

Ironically the car I want to replace the 335i with, the Tesla S, has even more heat issues. Currently you cannot get a Tesla around the 'ring for more than 1/3 of a lap without it going into limp mode

[AWSAWS]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

LoL, I think she is usually right about most things. I can live with the 25mpg average I'm getting from the 335, a M3 averaging <20mpg...Humm that would make me think twice about keeping it in the long term

As to the heat management issue, on manuals cars if you stick on an aftermarket oil cooler, get better air flow at the front, your just about OK. I know over the pound people have done all sorts, including using different coolant etc. Problem with aftermarket oil coolers is longterm realibity. If you look at the front of the engine bay, you can see there is very little room to be running larger coolant lines I think this is why the new M3/4 has the Intercooler above the engine, so to make room for additional oil/water coolers at the front of the engine bay.

Autocars (I believe DCT as well), also overheat from high water temperatures, the BMW PPK helps a bit, but you than still need to modify the air intakes.....

It's doable, you can get part rigid custom made oil cooler lines (all aftermarket lines currently are just braided off the shelf items, and vendors advise 'zip' ties to keep lines in place....Do you really trust 'zip ties' to keep oil lines in place bare in mind that the oil will be heated up to 140 degrees+), but a lot of effort and cost will be needed...which for me I've decided isn't worth it. I'll simply drive the car with-in it's heat limits, which is fine for 99.995% of daily driving duites

Ironically the car I want to replace the 335i with, the Tesla S, has even more heat issues. Currently you cannot get a Tesla around the 'ring for more than 1/3 of a lap without it going into limp mode

Hope it's not Lithium batteries. Have you seen lithium burn! Scary! Water wont help, lol.

[MattOz]

Originally Posted by texasjohn

Just got an N54...

My commute is about 17 miles, so far this week the oil temp gauge barely moves off the 70 mark until I'm 2/3rds of the way home. First 12 miles is motorway at 60-70mph.

Sound normal?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds absolutely normal. My commute is 14 miles of the M40/42 and the car is just about up to temp after 11-12 miles. Will probably be quicker to warm up in the summer!

[texasjohn]

thanks

[AWSAWS]

Originally Posted by MattOz

Sounds absolutely normal. My commute is 14 miles of the M40/42 and the car is just about up to temp after 11-12 miles. Will probably be quicker to warm up in the summer!

Yes normal behavior on my 8 mile trip which probably averages 25mph I'm 2 miles from work by the time the needle moves off 70.

In the cold weather I can get closer and closer to the office before it happens. Warmer temps it moves off 70 sooner.

[RajB]

Originally Posted by MattOz

Sounds absolutely normal. My commute is 14 miles of the M40/42 and the car is just about up to temp after 11-12 miles. Will probably be quicker to warm up in the summer!

Originally Posted by AWSAWS

Yes normal behavior on my 8 mile trip which probably averages 25mph I'm 2 miles from work by the time the needle moves off 70.

In the cold weather I can get closer and closer to the office before it happens. Warmer temps it moves off 70 sooner.

I did wonder about this and actually thought that maybe I had the BMS Sport Oil Cooler Valve fitted hence not seeing the oil temps rise very quickly.

I have looked into the upgraded oil cooler kits and we've just fitted some to a mates 135i. Was a pain to get in but all sorted and seeing consistent low oil temps even on track.