Wikkid911

Hi All,
My tray is also staying on. The only reason I would consider removing it would be if sombody could prove that by leaving it on I was going to make the gaskets become brittle and therefore promote oil leaks on the engine. I dont think this is the case. I think sooner or later all long term owners suffer from oil leaks of some description regardless of wether the tray is on or not. I think that simply by using the car the engine will not last forever so some wear is going to happen.
Cheers,
Dave
'90 C2

Arjan B.

As I did yesterday, follow up the advise from others, removing the insulation material from the tray and side panels, i see the positive thing in it.

Removing the foam material which is only for noice reduction, is a thing that get my 100% approval. Now the cooling ari has more ways to go and I am sure that removing the foam only will help also a bit cooling down the engine. With the foam in place, the air flow which is used for engine cooling is hold up cause of the foam as you see for your self.

For the rest I wait for furter facts which I hope will come up in this topic.

Have a nice day,

Arjan
964 C2C 1992 Black

Adrian: I think thatyou will not call this topic a X-file I hope.....

Cupcar

The list of reasons to remove the undertray I find given so far:

The proven ones:

1) The whole system is heavy weighs around 14 pounds
2) It's falling apart over time
3) It becomes a mess when there is an oil leak
4) It's in the way of engine service
5) The racing 964 variants removed it

The unproven, but seemingly logical, ones given are:

1) It retains engine heat leading to valve guide and other wear issues.

The list of reasons for not removing the undertray I find are:

1) Reflected noise of an air cooled engine is increased (The reason Porsche says they installed it in the first place)
2) Aerodynamic lift may be increased
3) The engine is then exposed to the elements
4) It functions as a skid plate
5) Porsche never said to remove it.

But Porsche did remove it, note that it is reduced in size in the 993 and eliminated altogether in the later water cooled cars. If aerodynamics and protecting the engine are important why did Porsche eliminate it in the later cars? Also apparently aerodynamics are not a consideration on the Carrera Cup cars.

I'm actually surprised that with some cars now exploiting diffusers under the car, Porsche has actually chosen to not install one on the latest 911's although they had the beginnings of one on the 964.

The only good reason I see is the noise consideration and since I don't care about noise and the laws are not against it here in the USA I removed my undertray. I'll hope I never need a skid plate!

graham_mitchell

No-one has specifically mentioned that the tray prevents oil drips from hitting the ground. I had a slow oil leak but never knew about it. All the oil was sloshing about in the tray.

Randall G.

Hey Andy,

You can find an excellent DIY for installing the switch here, by Jeff C/993TT. Written for a 993, but the same for our cars:

http://p-car.com/diy/fanswitch/

Jim Michaels

Ah, the real reason for the oil drip catch tray finally comes out.