Hatzenbach

Hi,

really HOT day in Laguna-Seca yesterday (95 - 105 degree F)
Starting mid-morning in each session my oil temp was up to a whooping 280 - 285 degree within 10 minutes.

I have a 2009 C4S / PDK
I have the 3rd radiator
my lap times were in the 1:45 - 1:46 range

Here's the questions:
* at which oil temp would you cut the session short?
* as I already have the 3rd radiator, is it time for an additional or bigger oil cooler?

Cheers from hot as hell California

stownsen914

I drive air cooled 911s. I'd stop driving before the oil temp gets to 250 degrees. I prefer under 200. 280 is too hot for your oil to do its job properly. You mention having the extra water radiator, which is good. What's your water temp?

I'd guess you need a bigger (or additional) oil cooler.

txhokie4life

What he said!

I raced a 944 in ChumpCars -- until we got our oil temps under control we lost several engines... Once we added a good sized oil cooler, we now rarely hit 210 degrees oil temps -- and thats in 100+ degree temps and multi hour racing.

M.

linzman

Ditto, except mines a 968. The way you duct it is important too.

Matt Romanowski

It really depends on where you read the temp. I don't know where your car sees the temp.

In a stock 3 liter, I have alarms at 250 for the oil in the tank and 295 right out of the motor.

ddombrowski

Sorry to hijack, but I'm curious about this - with the stock setup the oil wouldn't be too much hotter than than the water, and I would think the water temp reaching 230-250 would be catastrophic far before the oil temp getting that high.

We also race a 944 in Chump and saw the same thing going to a turbo oil cooler - our oil temp in the pan dropped to around 210 peak (180 on caution laps) with a big reduction in water temperature. Using my IR temp gun, I see 220 at the inlet of the oil cooler and 230-ish on the housing (but thats external temp, so internal is going to be higher).

txhokie4life

We run a turbo oil cooler --- AND an setrab up front in series.

We also had an accusump, but don't think that mattered as opposed to the second oil cooler up front.

Or we just had bad luck on engine #2 which was post accusump, but pre-second oil cooler.

We measured oil temp from a sender in the oil pan.

Mike

Ernie J

We at Mantissport use a oil cooler/electric pump and our deep sump. This knocks the oil temp into the 210 range.

Deadeye

In my boxster it's not unusual to have a 30 degree differrence between water temp and oil temp

Hatzenbach

Trying to answer all questions here:

I "measure" oil temp via the instrument on the dashboard.
250 degree is the "normal" oil temp on the track when it's not too hot
200 degree is the normal temp when driving on the street
However, I get water temp via ODBII on my AIM Solo DL
Here the reading was 232 F and on normal track days it's maybe 215

So should I rather trust the water temp from the OBDII and ignore the reading on the dashboard?

tcsracing1

we run our 3.8L PDK GT4 Cayman Clubsports in the 270s oil temp during the summer.
Often it can be a little over 270 to be honest.
Porsche says this is fine..... so we run them this way.

We Generally keep an eye on water temp when oil is anything over 277.

Not justifying your temps, but something to gauge seeing as you also have 3.8L with PDK.

BGB Motorsports would be the folks to ask in terms of tolerence and solutions.

177mph

Interesting. One guy who wants to park his car when temps get over 200 - another racer who runs as high as the 270's.

Interested to hear the real number when it makes sense to come in for a cool down lap.

mark kibort

260F for me and amsoil seems to work... at 265, mobil 1 breaks down, so i would be worried if runninig that. at that temp, i back down and that has only happened on the last few laps at a race at Thunderhill when temps were 110. (oh, and last weekend, but had a water pump failure so water was the problem.
coolers are probably a good idea.

flatsics

Air/oil cooled engines and water cooled engines have completely different designs and oil temp requirements.

To a point cooler is always better though.

mark kibort

True, but we are talking about water cooled here and ive seen really bad stuff happen with crummy oil vs the good stuff at those temps... i dont know what is normal for the 911 (water cooled) but 260 is my limit and the limit of most oils to do what they do best. i would think that anything over 250 is getting to the edge.