"02996ttx50

abu dhabi and 120 farenheit! gotta love it!

Tuxiemama

Datalog it... the temps on the gauge in car are a forgazi

Forrest Gump 9

When I had my Evo I would run straight distill water and two bottle of water wetter from April-October. Regular coolant for the rest of the year. Just wondering if anyone do that in their Porsche.

"02996ttx50

I dunno man.. I've never once heard of anyone experimenting with the cool;ant mix! but if you feel confident? me, I'd stick with g13 and distilled per the book on this one. good luck

dprantl

I have seen some racers use just distilled water and water wetter because this mixture cools better and is not so slippery if they spring a catastrophic leak . They also don't need freeze protection on a track car. However, racers also change their cars' fluids much more frequently than a normal street car. The main purposes of coolant in our engines are corrosion protection and freeze protection, and of course to keep the engine at the correct operating temps (and to increase the boiling point of the mixture too). In the summer you do not need freeze protection at all, so if you feel comfortable that the two bottles of water wetter are able to provide enough corrosion protection for the entire engine, go ahead and use that. Without long and exhaustive (and probably destructive) testing, I would not take that chance in an engine like the one in our cars.

Dan

Macster

In some cases plain (distilled water) and I guess some kind of additive is required. Some tracks prohibit the use of anti-freeze for safety reasons.

On the street, you should use a proper blend of Porsche anti-freeze and distilled water.

The anti-freeze has anti-corrosive additives in it and things to help the water pump last longer.

There are additives to help prolong the life of the water pump seal. (The water pump in my Boxster lasted 172K miles. The one in the Turbo over 120K miles.)

You must keep the system free of any leaks. It is the pressure the system develops when the engine is hot (up to temp) that keeps the coolant from boiling/flashing to steam.

Macster

I've run into 118F heat in the Turbo. One summer on the way from back east on the road - I40 -- west of Kingman AZ. The car was unfazed.

I've run into 116F heat in the Boxster. Southern AZ in the dead of summer.

Heck, in June 2009 -- just a few weeks after I bough my 03 Turbo -- on the way back from Palo Alto CA after attending a Concourse event on 84 I ran into 111F heat.

Here in Livermore we'll see 100F+ days and soon. (I can wait. I hate the heat.) I have 5w-50 going into the Turbo its next oil/filter change, due in under 1000 miles. With the Boxster in the shop awaiting a rebuilt instrument cluster I'm putting over 300 miles a week on the Turbo using it as my DD.

autobonrun

From what I've read, some tracks require distilled water if the coolant tube fix has not been done. Ethylene glycol is very slippery and there have been accidents by cars following ones when the tubes came loose. At least that is my understanding. If you're not tracking your car, I don't see a reason to change out the coolant.

"02996ttx50

i've heard of that prohibition also and yes, the mix is greasy. i knew little of the use of water wetter so my comments about any changes to the protocol were limited to a street car. i just know its headed north of 105 here very soon so running fresh and an undiluted 50/50 mix of the "oat" stuff and water per the manual is important to me. but i also appreciate the answer(s) as to why folks tracking dont necessarily need the stock oem coolant protocol to run their laps.

i always keep mine "fresh" and 50/50 mix. maybe once or twice have just added water,..then i obsess that it isn't 50/50 any more lol

rmc1148

I always keep a jug of 50/50 mix on the shelf for topping off= comes in handy.

powdrhound

The dash temperature gauge is woefully inaccurate. It generally rests just right of the 180º mark but in reality the temperature fluctuates quite a bit from that. I have a separate digital gauge that gets it's data from the OBD and I see the temps fluctuate from 180is to the low 200s depending on whether the car is moving, stopped, radiator fan running, etc. The front fans turn on at 215ºF. I have removed the A/C radiators front the car and coolant temps run about 10-15º cooler than before when flogging the car at the track for extended 20+ minute sessions in the heat.

dprantl

The OBD reading may be coming from the NTC sensor whereas the gauge has its own temp sensor located in a different part of the engine (usually right after the coolant has been cooled by the radiator, so should be more stable). This may be the reason why you see such big differences between the two readings. I'm not saying the stock gauge is very accurate, but it is usually not that far off and should show any fluctuations.

Dan

Macster

No my info is the gage is fed some kind of signal that is generated ultimately from the coolant temperature sensor voltage output.

The in-dash gage is heavily dampened either by whatever feeds it the info or at the gage somehow.

Real coolant temperature is quite variable and if the in dash gage accurately reflected the actual coolant temperature Porsche owners would be freaking out.

(For a real freak out trigger, one should view engine oil pressure using an non-dampened gage.)

Kevinmacd

If your temps creep up by a good margin, I would first check to see if the fans are running at the correct rate when activated.
Two things effect coolant temp airflow and coolant flow. If you do smell coolant are you sure its not coming form the water pump? I agree these cars seem to have radiator leaks after sometime. Its usually the at the "o" ring crimp between the aluminum radiator and the plastic tanks. I think this is due to expansion differences between the two different materials.
I would also check the epoxied coolant fittings on the engine.

CSF Cooling

The O ring crimp being reffered to is actually a rubber gasket, made with EPDM rubber if it's an OEM or OEM quality replacement.. Cheaper companies use other types of rubbber which tend to erode faster..

Generally a plastic/aluminum radiator is good for 5-9 years before it fails.. Common issues are cracked plastic tanks (this happens from expansion heat cycles), tube to headerplate leak (something hits it or corrision from the inside), or a gasket leak from it being hardened, torn, just old, etc.. .. The radiators could have a lot of debris built up on them from leaves, dirt, etc which will effect the cooling efficiency..

Everyone should just go out and buy CSF Radiators!! haha.. j/k.. seriously though