alanp

Hi Folks,
While my car is in the shop for a rebuild I've had a lot of time to think about & research basic engine care and maintenance when I get my car back.
Seems that Porsche under estimated how hot these 3.6's ran compared to earlier motors and other than adding an extra fin to the cooling fan there were no other mods to help keeps things cool.
I see that some folks have installed a remote switch that allows the oil cooler fan to be run on demand but that requires cutting into exsisting wires.
In my research I see that the low speed on the oil cooler fan kicks in around 210F - 220F & high speed @ 240F. I also see that a BMW thermostat can replace the original & turns the fan on at a lower 180 - 200F...keeping the oil & engine cooler.
The remote switch is an idea but a lower degree thermostat looks to be the ticket if a BMW part actually works.
Am I wrong in thinking Porsche didn;t do enough to correct these hotter running 3.6's?

hawk911

for what use though? I don't have issues with overheating, but I'm not using it as a daily driver, nor do I get stuck in traffic much.

alanp

I'm thinking in terms of Porsche's high temp settings before the oil cooling fan does it's thing and the assumption that engine health would benefit if running cooler.

hawk911

I'm thinking most people unless they are running the cars hard, haven't commented on this topic.

race911

It's a non-issue. We ran plenty of 3.6L cars when the were initially introduced without an extra cooler. Only became a problem (over 230F) when the temp got above 85F ambient. You never get there on a street engine. Well, maybe if you're stuck in a two hour traffic jam from hell or something. How often does that happen?

bmohr

well, i for one am interested as I do have daily driving and sometimes get caught in traffic accident backups. Got any info on the sensor(type, part number, cost?)?

alanp

A discussion over at Pelican is what got me thinking about this topic. Many felt that the factory presets were too high before the cooling fan came on...not comfortable @ 220F & why not have it run before getting too hot.

Made sense to me.

hawk911

based on what research? And with all the claims of engines running 300Kmiles, it doesn't seem to hurt the engine much.

tbennett017

I have put in a manual switch. We don't get very high octane gas here (91 is the best we get) so I like to keep the temps low in traffic jams etc. I am uptight about pinging etc.

Invariably there is a jam on the way back from the beach or something like that.

mojorizing

To offset the oil temp sensor you would need to add a resistor in parallel to the NTC sensor. That is if you want to use the existing porsche part. Use a variable pot. and you can dial it in so that the fan starts when the thermostat directs oil to the cooler.