Originally Posted by earossi

First off, you must check the oil with the engine running, not shut down. To do this, park the car in a level and flat area and allow the engine to idle down for about a minute to equalize oil volumes in your system. Then with the engine still running, and the oil temperature at normal temperature, pull the dip stick out of the oil tank and wipe it clean and then re-insert it fully into the dip stick tube. Make certain that the seal on the end of the stick fully contacts the lip on the dip stick tube. Then quickly remove the dip stick from the car and take a reading. It is sometimes difficult to see the upper mark of the oil well, particularly if you are attempting to measure newly installed clean oil!

The entire twisted portion of the dip stick represents, I believe, a little over one quart. So, you can "guesstimate" where you are by looking at it. It is normal for a car that is fully topped off to register about midway through the twisted section of the dip stick (hot oil).

Once you have established that your oil is at the correct level, wait until the oil is hot (by reading the temp gauge), and then at idle take note of where the oil level needle settles out on the oil level gauge. Normally, it will level out at 1/3 to 1/2 of full scale. You are doing this to establish for your unique car what gauge setting corresponds to full oil level. This gauge reading is not consistent from car to car, so it is important that you know where the "full" mark is for your car. Also, the oil level gauge normally will not register when the oil is cold; so, allow the car to heat up before expecting to see the gauge indicate an oil level.

As your car consumes oil, the level gauge will begin to show a drop when read hot and at idle. You will be ok NOT measuring the oil level at the engine until the gauge drops to slightly above "0". That should put you about one quart low. I would not top off your oil until you are at least one quart low. It is better to run these engines slightly low on oil rather than over filled. Ideally, running a 911 engine about 1/2 quart below max level is the best place to run the motor.

Secondly, it is normal for an air cooled motor to consume oil. If the engine is tight and has no external leaks, you can expect oil consumption to be as low as about a quart every 2000-3000 miles (4000 km). So, I would not be alarmed in the least to see oil consumption of 2 to 3 liters over 10,000 km. As the motor wears and if you develop some external seepage (typical), you will see oil consumption begin to rise. You should not consider any mechanical work to correct oil consumption until you see burn rates of about 1 liter every 1000-1200 km. At that point, you will more than likely require a top end rebuild of the motor. A well maintained car will usually run about 100,000 miles before requiring any major engine work. With good maintenance, the bottom end of these motors are usually good for about 200,000 miles.

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by ca993twin

Appear,

With only 50,000 miles, and your very reasonable oil consumption, you will not need to worry about an engine rebuild for another 200,000 miles. Sheesh... its not even broken-in yet! Stop worrying. Enjoy.

Originally Posted by appear

I then took the car to Porsche today as I wanted to make sure I was not doing anything wrong. They spent 15 minutes on warming the car up to an exact temperature and then read the dip-stick. It showed I was in the low-to-middle part of the twisted part. We agreed to add 0,5 liter and instantly the indicator inside the car climbed to circa mid-level. So in my car the difference between low/red level to medium is 0,5 liter oil, seems a little odd to me.

Originally Posted by Christian J

Minchia!