Batman 357

I’ve only had the car about 8 months. It’s just now starting to get warm. Operating temp has been a little under the middle mark on the gauge. Now that the temp is 90 the gauge is in the middle or a little above. Power seems to be down a little. Oil level is full and I was not stuck in traffic. Is this normal. What’s a dangerous reading.

84_Carrera

Top of the white solid block at the bottom of the gauge is ~150 deg. F. 1st hash mark above that is ~195 deg. f. Next above that is ~248 def. F. Redline is ~300 IIRC.

There was a nice photo of the gauge with the readings recently.

I think from the foglights you have an SC? You may benefit from an auxiliary oil cooler like the Carreras have if I understand the SC's correctly, they don't have the cooler in the front pass. fenderwell. Is the oil thermostat opening up?

What weight & brand oil are you using? While synthetics will be better able to withstand the temps better, "250 is too hot".

Good luck, hope I gave you accurate info.

Batman 357

It's an 82 SC. I THINK there is an oil cooler in the right front wheel area. The local Porsche shop uses Pennzoil 15-40. Thanks for the info.....

GothingNC

Hope this helps.

Mark S in NM

Porsche gauges and senders are known to take a crap and give false readings especially early like your SC. Best way to check is to get car up to temp remove oil tank cap and stick a tire pyrometer probe in. I tape the probe to the dip stick takes all of 1 minute to do and you get results where you want 'temp in the tank'. If you don't have one with a probe chances are a buddy does. You stated "oil level is full", the oil level should be between the 'min' and 'max' mark on your dip stick @ idle when @ operating temp on LEVEL ground.

Auto_Werks 3.6

My old SC would get to 250` when pushing it HARD on hot days. Once the car would reach 250` I would notice a slight power drop, and I would pull out of the throttle. The temp would very quickly retreat to the normal zone. If you get above the "248" line on the gauge, you should think about shutting down.

DRACO A5OG

Try the Brad Penn 20/50 it make my baby run alot cooler, rarely reaches the middle at high outside temps or freeway parking lots.

A note it does take longer to come up to op temp though

Mark S in NM

Your 82 should have a brass 28 tube cooler in the front right fender, this is a very good cooler. Check and see if previous owner did not change out for an old serpentine 'loop' cooler. Now run engine up to operating temp and reach up and feel the cooler if it isn't WARM/HOT your thermostat is not working and it should be. There is also an engine mounted thermostat but lets go one step at a time. Changing brand of oil is not a solution as far as I'm concerned there is a problem if your seeing 220+ in normal driving. Others are correct, 250 is a killer with conventional oil, a good synthetic can take 275 +. There is plenty of good advice suggested follow it up.

flatsixnut

I was under the impression that all '82-'83 SC's came from the factory with trombone oil cooler's in the front fenders. What is this 28 tube cooler you speak of?

Now I am a bit nervous about oil temp and need to double check mine. I always run my car hard, but I have never felt a power loss. When I do run it hard it always gets up to third line, then I ease up and let it cool down a bit.

Mike Murphy

The picture you posted goes very well with the picture I'm posting. It's Bruce Anderson's temperature chart.

BlackPearl

Your assumption about the "trombone" cooler is correct. The brass 28-loop cooler was an optional feature and not a standard one, at least for the 1983 I own. The trombone cooler is the factory standard cooler.

I purchased a used 28-loop cooler from a guy who went to the Carrera ('84 to '89) type cooler. You can also purchase an after market cooler from Mocal or similar supplier. The brass 28-loop, the Carrera, or the Mocal will all improve your oil cooling capabilities.

Is your gauge calibrated? Many of the the "three-tab" coolers were "close" to real temps., but for hot climates, I think they miss the mark (sorry for the pun).

Remember: these car were designed and built in a higher latitude, with higher annual rainfall. As much as I'd like to think Porsche did their homework about supplying cars in places like the American south and southwest with appropriate equipment for the climate, I've personally observed countless early air-cooled cars struggling in the US south and southwest. My wife's 912 could not be driven in the mountains during hot summer months (with a fresh 1720 re-build) until we installed a remote oil cooler in the left-rear fender. Now it's fine.

In my SC, I've got the 28-loop brass unit, a scoop where the running light used to be, I've removed the stock horn and installed smaller, louder horns, I have a Spal fan on my cooler, and I've slotted the underside of my front bumper to allow more air in between the bumper and the front valence. I have a calibrated oil temp sender and gauge. These Borrego and Mojave desert drives would wreck havoc on my car otherwise.

Unless I'm tracking the car on a hot day, my temp runs steady at 180 to 189 on the Fwy's and around 190 to 195 on the streets in traffic. (FWIW: I use Royal Purple 20-50 synthetic oil, too.)

Hope that helps.

wooly

I've got an 87 Carrera and when waiting in a fairly long drive-thru line last weekend, my temp gauge got up to 220 - 230 (just north of the midway point). Once I got back on the road, the temp got back down to 190-200. Is this normal?

Edward

A rising temp needle idling around is normal. Not ideal, but certainly normal. I've often heard many a guru, however, commonly point to 9:00 or thereabouts (~230 degrees) as the "upper end" of normal, and any higher is reaching into the "bad, but not deadly" zone. That said, if it were me, I'd be willing to accept an occasional albeit rare spike into that zone, but I certainly wouldn't want to make that anything close to a condition that my car would see regularly, even if it were just a seasonal occurance.

The 28-row brass cooler is also often called the "euro cooler" as they were OE on some years, can't recall which, though.

The US OEM trombone cooler, IMHO, is nearly useless, and completely so in traffic. The 28-row is a huge improvement, but you still need to get air in there or it'll be only a marginal improvment. Lots of folks put a discreet opening (say, 1.5"x6") into the uppermost part of the valance (so it is right underneath the bumper line) to help get some airflow. Remember that any cooler is only as good as its airflow: get cool stuff in and, and give the hot stuff a place to escape. Others have used a Carrera valance as it has a foglight opening, and they simply do not mount the foglight ...now there's an opening

But for a real fix, you need to get a real finned cooler, aka "Carrera cooler," either OEM or aftermarket. Then seal off the area as best you can with sheet metal so as to create a "funnel" where air can only pass through the cooler, and will then exhaust to the front wheel area ...simply cut metal with tinsnips to shape, and then screw/fasten to a convenient spot in said area. Alternatively (or in addition), you can also add an electric fan, and wire yourself a manual switch (you'll prob only need to turn it on when in slow or stopped traffic).

FWIW, I have a carrera cooler w/o fan, nicely "sealed" intake area, and a large opening (a tad larger than a foglight hole) in the valance. My SC is a 98% track car, and even on a short track on a 100-degree day, redlining to each corner, the oil stays below 9:00 ...this is makes me happy. Hope this helps you a bit

Edward

Mark S in NM

Sorry, my bad. 28 tube coolers were used on Euro models from 1980 to July 1984 and in US market starting 1983 ending in July 1984 when all started using radiator type coolers. The 28 tube is not very dependent on airflow for decent operation since it acts as more of a heat sink. The radiator type is very dependent that's why fan was added. Below pic of 28 tube.

flatsixnut

What if you used the place under the front of the car where the second ac radiator is at? I was planning on removing mine along with all the other ac stuff. I would think that it would get enough air flow there to stay cool. Plus when you remove the rear ac radiator it would also improve cooling to the engine.