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Engine oil temps on the track

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Old 05-20-2014, 05:25 PM
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mikew968
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Default Engine oil temps on the track

For those of you that are tracking your Cayman S what kind of on-track oil temps are you seeing? I saw a high of 234 on the track this past weekend with 70 degree air temps.
Old 05-20-2014, 10:37 PM
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Krokodil
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241 to 251+ in 85F on the 3.8. External oil cooler going in now.

Cheers,
Old 05-21-2014, 06:20 PM
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bmw_e30
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I wonder what my street legal track car is doing?

I almost never track if the temp is over 80 degrees though.....
Old 05-21-2014, 08:16 PM
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jcastle
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215-220F 70deg at vir and mid ohio. 3.8L Pdk.
Old 05-21-2014, 09:52 PM
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Rob VN
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220 F oil temp on 2.7L 5 speed with third radiator, 996 oil cooler, Sebring 85 F ambient. Running XP9 oil.
Old 05-21-2014, 10:07 PM
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mikew968
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The water temp never went over 195. what is the do not exceed temp I wonder?
Old 05-22-2014, 08:10 AM
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jcastle
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Interesting that engine and coolant temp showed much differently. Mine are always identical. Could there be an oil pump issue? My shop said to let them know if over 230, come off track at 250.
Old 05-22-2014, 10:49 AM
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mikew968
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even my Cayenne varies by about 20 degrees between water and oil temps
Old 06-08-2014, 07:45 PM
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bldn10
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I have driven the crap out of my CS w/ 3.8 on hot days and I swear the OEM water temp gauge never gets over what it is on the street - say 185. I do have a third radiator, though. Sometimes I wonder if the friggin gauge is broken and won't go past 185. :-/
Old 06-08-2014, 08:44 PM
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mikew968
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On Saturday the air temp was 80 and sunny with track temps around 125-130. During the race the water got to 225 and oil to 255. it felt like the engine became kind of sluggish near the end of the race.
Old 06-08-2014, 08:45 PM
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mikew968
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The stock temp gauge reads 175 and stays there until the water temp is truly in the red so it is more of an idiot light.
Old 06-09-2014, 02:29 PM
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Postman
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Originally Posted by mikew968
The stock temp gauge reads 175 and stays there until the water temp is truly in the red so it is more of an idiot light.
Yea the stock gauge is funny pegged at 175 when the thermostat temp is clearly 190.
Old 06-09-2014, 04:45 PM
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scott40
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Max I've seen is 220 oil temp, and that was running in 90 degree heat.
Old 06-17-2014, 09:35 AM
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mlpor
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I believe the consensus in other forums has been both the analog water temperature gauge in the old Caymans (987 & 987.2) and the new digital readout/gauge in the 981's functions something like an "idiot light" - i.e. it doesn't display or change with actual, real time temperatures. Instead, it "alerts" when one gets to some predefined problem threshold temperature. In the 981, unless there's a problem, it pretty much stays at 194°F - while the oil temp gauge can be pogoing around from >200°F to, in my case, I've seen mid 270°F - 275°F +/- at the track. I'd say I'm in a "harsh" or "demanding" temperature region in the summer months for cooling purposes, but . . . . FWIW, I think Porsche "likes" running oil temps in the 240-250 range.

Don't know about the older 987 cars since it was hard to directly monitor any information on oil temperature, but there's also some information out there from dealer techs etc. that turning on/activating the Sports+ feature, turns on a more aggressive cooling profile. Some 981 owners say they've collected data that seems to indicate turning on Sports+ say, on a highway will cause a marked drop in running oil temp, indicating they think the car has switched over to a more aggressive oil cooling profile in, perhaps, "anticipation" of being called upon to run a bit harder.

I can say, based on my own experience with the 987 cars, the stock OEM cooling system in the 981 has been greatly improved IMO. YMMV
Old 06-17-2014, 09:56 AM
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bldn10
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"The stock temp gauge reads 175 and stays there until the water temp is truly in the red so it is more of an idiot light."

So there we have it - Porsche deems buyers of Caymans as idiots. Nice.

Real sports cars should have real gauges. Just sayin.

I was having a blast chasing a Chris Smith Cayman race car at Barber Sun., it was warm and I was pushing it, and I got a warning for engine compartment blower failure, and a red light at the right of the gauge scale was blinking. Temp still showing around 180. Both went off after it cooled down a bit. I asked a guy who works on Porsches and he said it was simply that the engine compartment had gotten too hot - not the engine itself. Hope so.


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