is anyone running a oil temp gauge on there 454 and if so what kind of temps are you seeing? Mine is running in the 220 range and it makes me nervous? Do not have a oil cooler only trans which runs with the engine temp @ 195.

220°F is normal (speaking as a lube engineer, not a 454 owner). You want it least that warm to boil off water.

Hey rp! We had a similar problem with our breakaway water temp gauge except that it never went above 115 degrees. Spartan told us that as long as the gauge was giving some kind of reading then it was most likely the temp sensor, which it was. We replaced it and presto everything fell into line.

Before replacing it we ran some tests that BillNY suggested. (1) He told us to ground out each of the the sensors (one to the gauge & the other to the warning light) If they pegged the gauge and lit the warning light then the wires to the sensor were good. (2) If they did not function as just described then the wire was bad and to check for corrosion on the wires and either clean or replace the wire(s). Replace the sensor(s) only after running the above tests.

I hope this helps.

Carl Feren

Hi Richard, I've got the transmission oil temp gauge in our 88 with 454. It has indicated high every since we got it. It had one transmission cooler in addition to the radiator circuit. I added another, it didn't change the temp gauge much. I went to a transmission shop I've had experience with and respect. They checked it over drove it, serviced it and changed it over to Castrol synthetic at my request but found nothing out of the ordinary with the transmission. The head man said the gauge was out of calibration. He suggested taking the "ordinary conditions" driving temperature indication and consider it normal and look for deviations from that. I have gone back to the same fellow for two subsequent summers now and had him check the characteristics and fluid which he judges not out of the ordinary and declined to suggest changing the fluid yet. He said he would change it if I wanted but considered it unnecessary. This same fellow rebuilt the transmission on our 454 1976 23 ft Barth and I have considerable respect for his knowledge and professionalism. Bottom line is the gauge continues to indicate over 200 in normal driving conditions and the transmission does not seem to have suffered any ill effects and performs beautifully. We do a lot of mountain driving and I am always aware of the gauge but have stopped worrying about it.

I think rp is referring to crankcase oil temp. 220°F for a tranny is a bit high, but still safe.