Oil temp rests below the first line.
 

Hi everyone,
My C2 964 oil temperature gauge rests slightly below the first 3rd line, which I believe means it is slightly below what it should be whist running. I took the car along the motorway today and then onto some spirited countryside driving and the temp gauge rested below the line and remained there the entire time. It has very recently had a 12k service and oil change as well as a PPI which said it was fine and so I am not sure if i need to be worried or if the gauge is just wrong?
Thanks for any advice,

Tom

oil temp guage in an oil cooled car is very different to a water temp guage in a water cooled car.

your observations are consistent with my 964.

'spirited countryside driving' is unlikely to get the oil to a decent temperature.

if you want to get the oil hot and to about the 9 o'clock position, then try the following ...

let the car idle for 30-40 minutes (which you have to do to check the oil level), or
keep the revs above 5000rpm for more than 15 minutes on a hot 45 degree C day.

Tom,

If you are below the third line (counting lines from the bottom of the gauge) this is a good thing:).

If you are worried about your gauge, invest in a laser temp gauge. Point it towards the front oil cooler and get the temp from your oil cooler. This can be done through the opening in your front bumper. This will tell you if your thermostat is opening and you are getting oil to the cooler.

You can also point the laser at your oil filter. This will give you the engine oil temp. Not exact but close.

Jim

The oil temperature is affected by how you use the car and ambient temperature. For normal driving in normal temp, say 20C, the gauge should show somewhere below the 194 degree mark; on hotter days and spirited use it can be anywhere up to 248 degrees; (that's getting really hot). Under normal conditions and a properly working thermostat you should see the temp rise to just under the 194 mark and then drop to just over the 122 mark, and then go back up to just under 194 again.

:cheers:

i struggle to get my car to the 194 mark unless it is about 30 mins of very slow traffic (basically idling).

can NOT get close to 194 whilst spirited driving in the hills (it is hard to keep revs over 5000rpm whilst driving in the hills).

but can get to just under 248 on the track on a 45 deg C day.

I'm in the middle of the Texas summer, seeing 100F+ degree weather sometimes, and if i'm on the expressway, the car will run slightly above the 194F (8:00) mark. If I get stuck in any traffic where my speed slows down and i'm barely creeping along, it will shoot up to nearly the 248F (10:00) mark and hover between the 9:00 and 10:00 mark until I get moving again.

I plan on doing the rollingjack resistor mod to make the oil cooler fan come on sooner. I already bought the resistor, I just haven't had time to take get the tire and wheelwell shield removed to get in there and solder in the resistor.
https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...n-by-212f.html

STOP PRESS.

Don't let the car idle. The engine was designed in such a way that it should be driven as soon as the engine is turned on. You will find this information in the User Manual that came with the 964 and covered here in Rennlist - search. The reason for this is that it is bad for the cams to run at idle speed ( I'm sure someone can chime in with a more thorough explenation ). Therefore in the event of being stuck in traffic resulting in long ( I guestimate 10 mins is long enough ) periods at idle it is best to switch off the engine.

Tom, it sounds fine. As long as you have good air flow the oil will not heat up as much as you may think.

On the motorway, you are at a constant speed, therefore so is your fan and your air flow to the engine is exellent - good oil temp.

The slower you are goinng ( stuck in traffic ), the slower your fan speed and less air is fed to your engine - hot oil temp.

how do you check the oil level then?

it is not possible for me to find a racetrack on a 40+ deg C whenever I need to check the oil level.

the only way to get it properly hot is a good session of idling with zero airflow.

Thank you everyone, very very helpful. At first I was questioning every sqeak and abnormality but from now on I will put it down to the car's character!
Frank see you next weekend!

Vandit,

I purchased a resistor as well (Nebraska is currently 99F). Probably will not get around to installing the resistor for another month or so.

Please update us on how effective this mod is. Texas is the perfect test grounds for this mod :cool:

Also, if you have a laser temp gauge, please zap the cooler to confirm at what temp the first speed fan is kicking on.

Thanks,
Jim

I thought I would give a reply to this thread as reading it made me worry about oil temp in my 964.
First if all I thought the engine was getting to hot and was not cooling as it should looking at the temp gauge it appeared to fluctuate but never past the 9 o’clock position.
Checking all the thermostats, fans and other bits the conclusion was, every thing works as Porsche design!
Being the type of person who likes a challenge (well it is a Porsche tiptronic Targa) investigation was needed.
First stop was reading an article by Bob the oil guy, now this is very good and gives an insight as to how, why and what your oil is up to in your engine, so fellers stop letting your engines idle from cold for who knows how long as the damage you are doing is costly!
Now my daily driver is a basic Volkswagen golf 1.6 diesel chug box and it has lots of gizmo’s and one of them gives me oil temperature, and guess what! The oil runs at 85-91 Celsius under all running conditions and 101 Celsius on a motorway at 75mph, this corresponds with bob the oil guy’s article.
So back to the Porsche, I fitted a digital oil temperature gauge, got it of ebay for £9.99, the sender is fitted into the housing that has the sender for the Porsche sender so the temperature reading will be the same.
And the result, ‘surprising’ normal running temp 80-85 Celsius, stuck in traffic crept up to 95 Celsius at one point 101 Celsius with the outside temp up in the low 30ish.
So all working fine and it is so good I have now fitted this gauge in permanently by removing the gauge housing and fitting the digital display in the dash.