dr90254

Agreed, Cali Porsche dealer also told me to use 0W40 Mobil 1, I have been using it for 2 1/2 years now without problems (I don't track my car).

333pg333

Well my only addition to this apart from posting links to threads that are written by highly experienced experts in the field, is to say that the failures that have occurred due to premature camshaft, bearing wear etc are predominantly using low visc synthetic oils that have low or no ZDDPs and high detergents in them.
Secondly a lot of the information is gathered by people who work day in day out on these cars. Now in reality they should shut the hell up and let owners use whatever oils they want, suffer the failures and then take them to these guys to fix.....but they don't. They communicate their findings and pass the info on openly for the benefit of the wider community. I don't know why they bother sometimes, guess they must be good guys.

bearone

apples and oranges.

most of these comments are about older vehicles, not your '04/996.

87951
95sl320 dd

333pg333

^^ Agreed, but funnily enough the Owner's Manual even advocates Dino 20w/50 for some Boxters and 996s, down to a certain temp, which surprised me!

JET951

A couple of other items of interest , in most of the Porsche owners manuals from last century ,I think from memory from around 1989 onwards(all models) , Porsche referred to the much lower viscosity so called synthetic engine oils as" Fuel Economy oils ", and they were always at the bottom of the page in the owners manual and not in the look at me shaded section in the centre of the page.
Now lets think for a minute , if you are striving for fuel economy over all else then these oils are the logical extension of this overriding factor, meaning fuel economy is No 1 , so naturally the vehicle in question will be driven with this in mind , no high revs at all , and in the case of a 951 , very little or no boost can be used in keeping with the overriding fuel economy , and so long as the oil warning light never comes on hot at idle (insufficient oil pressure)it may work . Then the next pressing thing is to find a say 0w-40 engine oil with enough ZDDP in it , and better still an engine oil that has both ZDDP and Moly , perfect for Porsche engines from last century (Moly enhances the function of the ZDDP) , so find out if this 0w-40 oil has these qualities , particularly the levels of ZDDP needed .

Now to what we stick to at our independent workshop in Sydney Australia , very moderate climate , we look at the owners manual for all Porsche's , but without doubt for us any thing other than a high quality 20w-50 with good levels of ZDDP and moly for Porsche models Pre 996/986 from last century. And the result is No cam wear , No lifter face wear , No thrust bearing wear (this is aimed at 928S4 etc), and no piston cylinder wear (road use 250,000 - 400,000 kms +) , all we do is change the oil and filter every 10,000kms for N/A cars and 5,000 kms for turbo if driven harder .
Results = no oil lights coming on , and great engine life , Oh the engine can go for full power at any high temp with decent oil pressure at the big ends .
Now at what ambient temp would I use a say 5w-40 oil , well for me it can not be over an ambient temp of +10 deg cel , which means the average temp will be Zero (freezing point of water) or lower.

Regards .
BB

seattle951

Who should a 944 owner trust in regards to oil recommendations?

Should they trust Porsche or posters on this forum who they know nothing about? (I agree that some of the posters on this forum on the most experienced on the planet, but others??. How do you tell the difference between a true expert and uniformed poster? Even the apparent experts disagree.)

Should they trust their mechanic who a long history with car?

Should they trust the oil technicians from Mobil or Royal Purple?

There are conficting recommendations from multiple sources. In the end, the owner is just going to make a judgement call on who they trust here.

fastmover

Guy's, the reason Porsche switched to o/40 was for the 01 996 turbo and emmission out put when the cars are cold. Here's why: (Now all new Porsche's use these systems)

01 996 tt came with vario lift camshafts and lifters, along with a vane cell camshaft adjuster on the intake cam, these system are controlled via oil pressure and a control strategy in the dme. In order to take advantage of the newer technology to combat cold engine emmisions output. they needed a thinner oil on start up, that would allow these oil hydraulically controlled circuits to come to effiency faster. Since they now can go to low lift, advance/retard the intake cam and also control overlap between intake and exhaust cam, and control intake runner control. they could more effeciently control emmissions output when cold or hot without giving up performance.
Other then that as far as oil goes you should still go by atmospheric regional temps and oil temps while operating the vehicle.


Semper fi

porshhhh951

I'd say trust your mechanic if your warrenty is in check. Other than that. Its anybody's guess. Everyone seems to have a different path with the same goal. Its certainly like a religion.


Personally I've talked to soo may people about ZDDP additives, and moly and my results have been great with Brad Penn oil. I don't ever see myself going back(on these olders porsches). My oil pressure really did go up. No bull****.

carlege

Jet: I know you didnt mention the oil you use for your cars but from an experts opinion what oil do you use? brand/weight?

JET951

Hi Carlege , the oil viscosity we use for Porsche cars from last century (pre 986, 996) for our average ambient temp range for normal road use is a 20w-50 , now I do not like advertising the high volume "road use" oil brands or types, and particularly in your case where you are in the USA , because the same oil company here in Australia often have a slightly different version of what at first glance is the same or similar labeled oil .
Now the good thing is that the vast majority of 20w-50 engine oils are designed for vehicles well into last century , which usually means the higher levels of ZDDP is not an issue in regards to meeting the ACEA Emission criteria , because this era( pre mid 1990's) is allowed to have a bit more ZDDP .
So in your country there will be a Hugh range to choose from .

Where as for track work we use Valvoline racing 25w-60 .
Regards
BB.

carlege

Thanks JET951. 20w-50 was going to be my choice.

KuHL 951

For what it's worth I've been using the Valvoline Racing VR-1 20w-50 for over 3 years now after hot weather issues with M1 15w-50. My oil pressure in the Summer even after climbing a 9000' pass under boost is 2.5 bar at idle and cold starts in 30 deg. weather never has produced lifter noise. The VR-1 has the recommended ZDDP levels also. I'm sure there are better oils but VR-1 has served me well. I completely agree with previous warnings about the M1 0W-40 (at least for my hot climate); it's constantly in the 100's around here so maybe I'm just overly cautious.

Jake951

I recommend everybody read the article in the October 2008 issue of Panorama. It talks about oils for the older (and newer) Porsches and specifically about ZDDP. It is a very informative article. Read it and make up your own mind.

What do I use? When I had my 951 I ran Mobil 1 5W30 in the winter and 15W50 in the warm weather months. I did this for 18 years without any engine problems. Now that I have the Cayman I use only Mobil 1 0W40 year-round.

carlege

thats the oil im buying for my car. Heard nothing but great things about it... ill prob buy 2 cases from amazon

ehall

so make two...and READ IT!