mdbickell

My '81SC still had the original oil temp guage (no numbers) so I've finally gotten around to replacing it. It wasn't that I felt as though I needed an exact temp reading, but rather that I thought it might have been giving me a bad reading.

The car always seemded to run very cool unless I was driving it hard on the track. On the streets, the temp rarely ever got more than 1/3 of the way up the guage. When on the track, I occasionally had the temp half way up the guage, but no where near the red.

Thinking that this may be due to a bad read, I replaced the guage as well as the sender. I still can't get the oil temp above 140. I ran it hard for half an hour the other day shifting at redline very regularly and it still didn't get abve 140.

Any thoughts from anyone? Is this weird? I still have the oringal trombone cooler. What's the regular warm temp of an '81 SC?

thanks,
Matt

lewis9113.2

My 3.2 reads the same as yours after similar 'treatment'.
I'd say your car is cooling as it should :-)

911Dave

I can't get my 3.2 above that either, and I'm thrilled at that.

Bill Verburg

Something doesn't sound right here.

The SC and Carrera thermostats open at ~ 176F. According to your gage neither t-stat will ever open.

If you have a late sender and an early gauge it will read very low as seems to be happening.

Are you sure that the sender matchs the gauge?

rbcsaver

140 sounds waaay too low. I suspect that the sender and gauge are not a matched set. I had a new VDO gauge and sender that I bought as a newbie and it always seemed low. When it finally died a new VDO gauge/sender set
now reads accurately. I once read a article on how to adjust the gauge using a 12 volt battery, pot of boiling H2O (212 degrees F), the sender and gauge. My VDO unit didin't have any adjusting screws, but it seems like a somewhat accurate way to verify the temp.

The drysump Porsche needs to operate above 212 degrees F AT Times to burn off the condensation in the oil. Retained moisture in the oil is NOT a good thing and is demonstrated by that yellow-browish foam on the inside top of the filler cap. Engines that operate at "normal temps" will not have this foam.

mdbickell

Thank you all for your thoughts. I've double checked the guage / sender combination and they appear to be correct. I purchased them together from Performance Products and cross referenced them against the kit offered by Pelican.

The temp is still low. The owners manual says that the temp should be 194 F. I'm still in the 140's - 150's.

Does anyone have any other thoughts what could be causing this, or could I just have a very cold-running motor? (not likely)

thanks,
Matt

Bill Verburg

When I suspected that my oil temp gauge might be wrong I got a meat thermometer with a long stem, to insert in the tank. A long, lab type thermometer would do as well.

rbcsaver

My thoughts:
1. Wrong sender unit. I looked at the Performance site, and they are also the ppl that I ordered my unit from. The sender and gauge are sold as a set. Is this how your's was ordered and arrived?
2. Gauge is not calibrated/functioning correctly.
3. Call performance about a warranty replacement. after trying the boiling H2O
Good luck!

Crimson Nape Racing

Matt - I got a spool of wire from radio shack so I could put the sender into a pot of boiling water on the stove (I tried a propane torch and jar of water, but that didn't work). You can then read the gauge inside the car and know exactly where 212 is on your gauge. I had just the opposite problem with my 84 and spent lots of $ to make it run cooler. I finally did this, and found out my gauge was reading about 30-40 degrees high. I marked 212 on the edge of my gauge with a tiny sliver of yellow tape as a reference.
Bob