Spow

Jason,
Thanks for the picture. My dipstick doesnt look like that. Perhaps its been duffed at some point. I'll try & get a photo of it tomorrow.

Cheers
Steve

jeffnudd

Steve

Its good to hear that you are NOT checking the oil with the gauge on the dashboard because they are as accurate as the weather man.

My gauge takes f***ing ages to reach the correct level.

It does sound like you may have a different dipstick to what you should have for the model of car, it might be worth checking straight away and ring your nearest Porsche dealership and order a new one just as a matter of course if your unsure.

Heirsh

My gauge works fine. Car has to be level and hot, then it reads correctly. I prefer it to the dipstick.

Sal 965

Wikkid Dave and I usually meet in North Manchester and head down but if you PM me with your location we'll find a suitable place to hook up on the way

JasonAndreas

Does it look like this?



That is the way it is supposed to work. The oil temperature has to reach 194F/90C, thermostat should be open with the engine idling for at least 30 seconds and on level ground. Otherwise both the dipstick and the gauge will be wrong.

colo964

Assuming it smokes thru the exhaust, not the heat exchangers, oil most likely gets in thru the breather hose. My gaskets didn't hold too much oil smoke, so it smoked from the wheel wells and the tail pipe, making it look far worse than it really was.

You'll see 2 ? rubber hoses on the back of the throttle body going toward the oil tank. Too much oil in the tank plus hard turns plus cool temperatures (shut thermostat) might cause extra splashing in the oil tank. The throttle body is under vacuum, helping the splash siphon into the intake system. Good luck.

BTW: after I cleaned the intake, I had to run the engine about 20 minutes to cook out the leftover oil (catalyst was suprisingly already clean). A good time is about 2:00AM when no one is out. Talk about a lot of smoke (embarrassing, too).

Toddimus

As a wild *** idea that could be the cause of all the smoke...

White smoke isn't usually oil, it's usually water. We all know that's not what's going on here, so what else could it be? The power steering fluid probably burns white, but how could it get INTO the exhaust?

Here's my story and possible theory:

On my first Porsche (a '77 911S), my heart sunk as I once started the car and was enveloped in a WHITE cloud.

What could it be? "It must be oil, and it just doesn't look blueish in this light", I thought to myself.

I gathered my wits and put her up on jack stands and began to pull a 911 engine for my first time. When it came time to unhook the hoses from the throttle body, I noticed a bunch of fluid in one of the air hoses...

It was the vacuum assist line for the master cylinder!!! The brake master cylinder seal had failed, and the vaccuum line sucked the fluid into the intake and presto... I figured out there and then, what color smoke brake hydraulic fluid produces when it burns.

The moral of the story is that what I thought was going to cost me $$thousands$$, ended up costing me less than $200 for a new master cylinder, and a bunch of hours "wasted" removing and re-installing the engine. I'll take that any day!

If yours is a C2 then this could be the ticket, if it's a C4 this can't be the case because we don't have a vaccuum assist.

Just my 2 cents.

jeffnudd

Think we have our wires crossed here, im talking about the oil level gauge not the tempature :-)

JasonAndreas

I was just pointing out that the reason it could be taking forever to reach the correct level is because it takes forever for the oil to come up to temperature (194F/90C).

FotoVeloce

Geez that picture gives me the ******* every time I see it...


PS. Thanks to whomever posted that little diagram about what temp the lines are supposed to represent.

dfinnegan

Yeah, interesting, that . . . no gas, no pressure, yet nice level and temp! . . . must have had some things disconnected.

jeffnudd

Once the engine has started the oil LEVEL sensor gauge should rise almost to the top but mine normally takes around 5 minutes, it may even not bother to come to the top sometimes so i never bother with the gauge and always rely on the dipstick, safest way to check oil in my opinion.

But yes i see what you mean the temp gauge with take a while on tickover in order to check the oil correctly, i normally take the car for a spin up the carrigeway and come back then check oil.

Jeff "Just checking the oil in the car love"
Wife "Ok, see you tomorrow"

:-)

Heirsh

Jeff,

The oil LEVEL gauge will NOT read correctly until the engine oil is up to temperature. Neither will the dipstick. The time it takes varies on how hard you are on the car, your oil type and weight(oil not you. ), condition of car, ambient temperature, etc etc. If you prefer to read the dipstick, thats fine. The 12 qts of oil in these cars expands rather drastically when it warms up.

The dipstick shouldnt lie to you once you figure out how to read it. Some people have scuffed theirs up so its easier to see. Either way you do it, though, read it warm and when the car is level.

jeffnudd

These cars are a bit of a nightmare when it comes to routine checks but we do thank the lord for porsche forums :-)

Indycam

"Once the engine has started the oil LEVEL sensor gauge should rise almost to the top but mine normally takes around 5 minutes, it may even not bother to come to the top sometimes so i never bother with the gauge and always rely on the dipstick, safest way to check oil in my opinion."

When the engine has just started the gauge reads low because the oils cold , when the oil gets hot then the gauge starts to work right .
The gauge is very good once the oil is hot .
Until the oil is hot the gauge is worthless , don't look at it .