billatlanta

Just a few questions I am curious about:

1. Do I need to be concerned with the oil (OEL) level gauge ? Checking the dip stick level with the car warm and ideling the level (although hard to read since the oil is clean) seems to show proper oil level. However when car is cold on the oil level gauge it appears to be low and once the car is warm it shows in the upper range. Is this normal?

2. I have put a little over 1k miles since the oil service and the car used 3/4 of a quart of oil. Is this about normal? The car has no leaks, but I have read elsewhere on this board that some oil consumption is normal.

3. Lastly - now that the weather is getting warmer how do these car deal with the heat? Do they run hot??

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Bill

Bill Gregory

Yes, until it's warmed up, the gauge will show low. The dipstick, when the oil is warm and on even ground, is always to be believed before the gauge.

The spec is 1.5 liters per 1000 km, or roughly a quart per 650 miles, however many get more like a quart per thousand, or more, miles.

They should not run any warmer than 250 degrees. If your temp gauge is the dumb one with white lines and no numbers, look at the gauge from the right side and you'll see little numbers just out of sight next to the white bars. These are the centigrade values of each white bar. For about $75, you can get a replacement oil temp gauge with actual temps and a new, easily installed, sender.

Noel

1) The level shown on the gauge is only accurate when the car is sitting still and idling at temperature. Generally this gauge should not be trusted. Always check the oil with the dipstick.
Generally these cars run best with the level between the high and low mark. Keep it off the high mark or you may experience smoking from oil being sucked into the intake.

2) The rule of thumb is one quart every 1K miles is normal. Anything more should be investigated. Also be sure to use 20/50. As 3/30 is way to light for these cars and may cause you to use more oil.

3) It depends. Ambient temperature, rear wing (Cars with wings will run cooler on the highway), type of driving (Stop & go, highway or track). Bruce Anderson (Porsche Guru) always says that the normal range for these engines is 180-220, over 250 is unacceptably hot.
Welcome to the club!

Noel

Bill, you beat me to the send button.

Bill Gregory

You may want to consider two sources of information: First, your owners manual, and the current Porsche recommendation. Your owners manual says for 'fuel efficient oils' / synthetics, 10w-30 or 10w-40. Multigrade ranges from 5w-20 to 20w-50 based on outside temperature ranges. If you scan the archives, you'll find where I've posted the current Porsche recommendations, which are predominantly synthetics.

tarix

I'm having trouble locating these recommendations actually. I've done a few searches, but haven't come up with anything.

My current thought is to put Mobile 1 15W50, since I mostly drive during the summer and live in California.

Speedraser

I run Mobil 1 15/50 in my '81 SC. Trust the dipstick -- when the engine is warm. My car (stock) does just fine dealing with very hot days.

Bill Gregory

Here's the March 2000 information from the Porsche Technical Bulletin, summarized in "Porsche Approved Engine Oils" by Allan Caldwell in Porsche Panorama, October 2000, p. 82, the following oils are approved by Porsche for all 4,6, and 8 cylinder Porsche's from 1973 to current
models:

Manufacturer/Name Weight

Castrol/Syntec 5W-50
Exxon Superflo Supreme Spec . 15W-40
Mobil 1 5W-30, 10W-30, 15W-50
Sun Oil/Sunoco Synturo Gold 5W-40
Texaco/Havoline Formulat 3 Synth 5W-40
Valvoline/High Performance Syn. 5W-30

There has been an update to this bulletin, which I couldn't put my fingers on right now. The update incorporates 0w-40 and removes 15w-50, as I recall.

tarix

These two web pages seem to confirm that somewhat.

http://www.mobil.com/Canada-English/...il_1_0W-40.asp
http://www.mobil.com/Canada-English/...l_1_15W-50.asp

Now I feel like I need an oil education. For hot weather is 0W40 better than 10W30? 0W40 sounds like some sort of super oil.

billatlanta

I am running Castol GTX 20-50 non syn. The oil is mid way between the two marks with engine running at idle and warm. I was just concerned about the oil gauge since when the engine is cold after start up it is in the red zone. Once warm it is almost near the top, which almost equates to the level on the dip stick.