hatchetf15

Wayne - Seems to me your car is just in a rut. Maybe she needs a change of scenery. She feels like a mess after driving in the Nor Cal rain and marine layer all the time? You know how a horse haunch flinches when the fly bites? Sounds like what the rain does to your car. Got the 91 octane blues? Those marvelous back roads must be starting to look the same. I mean, come on, look at the photo proof over the last couple of years. Time passes by and she just stays looking the same. Those newer 991s make her jealous and look down on herself.

I’d be willing to fly out and bring her back to Nashville for the winter. Lots of nice roads out here east of the Mighty Miss. She’d meet some new Porsche friends and she’d be parked next to my ugly old 996 for that little self-esteem bump. Plus I only live 1.4 miles from a certified Porsche Whisperer. Bring her back to you in the spring with a refreshed appreciation for what she has at home!

Doug H

Lol, I have been ******* mine out when cold for more years than I care to mention and that includes 6 997s. I have easily put 15k plus miles a year in everyone of them with no issues.

Think you guys are spending too much time on the net reading/worrying.

Doug H

Do you guys really watch oil temp gauge once your up and running. I have seen pretty large swings in oil temps in all of my 997s, especially in summer.

Hate to admit, but I have no clue how low it goes because candidly it just doesn’t matter to me. Could it not be entirely possible that Wayne’s gauge is a little cuckoo? After all, doesn’t he have well over a 100k miles or am I confusing him with someone else?

Doug H

This.

This thread is actually pretty funny to me.

I would say hundreds, perhaps close to or over a 1,000 times I have taken 997s and 996s on to race tracks in the colder months with little or no warm up. I go straight from pits and do a quick warm up lap for tires, but I am still in upper revs even in warm up laps. I am then all over red line and and pretty much at red line or close to it for the next 20 plus minutes. I have had many sessions in rain as well.

Worried about driving in rain seems a little, sorry to say, off the charts. I doubt you are bouncing off red line in rain in public streets although the engine would be perfectly hunky dory if you are. Go enjoy some turkey. No reason to get yourself or others that maybe newbies concerned about something silly.

Wayne Smith

Allow me to explain something the internet can sometimes fail at ... I was tongue in cheek on this thread's title ... Although Porsche's inability to stabilize oil temperature continues to bother me.

To clarify ... These cars are great in the rain. And I got nearly a hundred miles the other night playing near red line (even at 175F I couldn't stop myself) slipping and sliding my way home. What better way is there to start the holidays?!?!?!

Yeah, I've got 131K miles on mine and drive it almost every day and never look at the weather as a factor. And this is the most reliable car I've ever owned. And with a bit of DIY the cheapest per mile.

But the humanity in me stops me from loading an object that is not yet thermally stable. Oh well.

wjk_glynn

What cars do you know are thermally stable per your expectations?

Thanks.

Karl.

TractControlOff

I usually let it warm to ~ 200 before doing anything too spirited.

As for rain, I drove my car in heavy Miami traffic through a monsoon and it was fine.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Doug H

Lol, I thought it was tongue and check, but then I started reading some of the responses and thought wow, these guys are serious.

911s have always been this way. The air cooleds really fluctuated. They could get pretty dang hot on track and in the summer and it was always a welcome sight when cooling system kicked into high gear and/or you were out of stop and go traffic and the temperature started coming down.

All of my 997s have fluctuated temps just as all of my SCs, 3.2s, 3.3 turbos, 964s, 965s, 993 tts, my sole NA 996 and my 996 tts. I actually never paid attention to oil temp in either of my 991 turbos at all so I cannot comment in those. I do somewhat watch gauges in my older cars though.

Some "experts" come on here primarily to market/troll for $$$s and the info disseminated IMO is very, very controlled perhaps is the best way to put it. There is a design problem causing scoring on certain engines unrelated to your engine and scoring can occur on engines other than Porsches.

Me, I am more concerned about operating a pdk cold than redlining the engine before oil is completely up to temp. That said, I don’t go start it on a blustery winter day and red line it at idle immediately after cranking.

997.2 owners should just exercise common sense and they will be fortunate like you to enjoy these cars well in the 100k mile range.

cringely

Water cooling systems are somewhat regulated by a thermostat. After that opens, then it is a factor of cooling air through the radiator.
I'm willing to bet that there is no thermostat on the oil system. Actually, you wouldn't want one that prevents oil from circulating.
If you wanted a constant oil temperature, you could put a third oil cooler in parallel with a thermostat to add (or not add) additional cooling above/below a set temperature range.
As for me, no medium hard acceleration until above 175°F and no hard acceleration until above 200°F

in closing, for those of you in North America, Happy Turkey Day

Doug H

Dude, that is totally my problem. I simply don't have the self-restraint a normal 52 year-old should have. I jump in and want to take off and have fun whether oil temp is cold or warm.

Rain . . . the other day I was coming off a very sharp, sweeping exit ramp sliding it just a bit with traction control off and then hit red line in 2nd right after it straightened out and before I merged on to the interstate. I shifted into the third and the rear end kicked out, way out . . . I was actually startled this NA GTS had that much power at that speed. I like! Lol, I had a just left the gym only a mile or 2 away from the interstate so yep, it was probably below 175 when I was hanging to tail out after a red line shift into 3rd.

Wayne Smith

As a single example ... My wife's GLA45.

FWIW ... 1.9 liter 4 cylinder, 27 psi boost, 380 HP, 3400 pounds ... Yeah, performance including lateral G that pretty much matches my 2010 C4S. The width and length are about the same as well. I'm not sure which car (GLA or C4S) I can run faster up the coast!!!

I can beat the living daylight out of the GLA and the oil temp varies less than 5 degrees per the special AMG digital gauge. Same variance in water temp. The transmission temp can vary about 10 degrees.

My Ford F250 appears to hold constant temperatures with an empty bed, with 3000 pounds in the bed, or when towing a large trailer.

Even the Lotus and Triumph cars I've owned seemed to have much better temperature regulation than the C4S.

I did have a 1958 M38A1 ****** that we put an 800 HP Sprint car motor in that even with a custom built 5 core radiator was tough to keep the temperatures controlled!!!

wjk_glynn

Interesting.

GoldenGorilla

But one thing you really need to know in any modern car is whether the gauge is actual or a dummy guage, and whether you can get actuals reading off the ODBII port. So few cars give actual readings on temp.

That said, I also notice pretty big swings in the oil temp. I never worry about it on the cool side after warm up. I have had it in the -15F range while descneding passes in the snow and it definitely isn't holding at 200F then. So what? The only time I ever worried about it on the hot side was climbing out of Death Valley in July. The temps got higher than I usually see but I had no issues.

SpeedyD

I think there is a general misunderstanding that oil needs to be at 212+ to evap water. This is obviously not true. The rate changes but 200 degrees is also going to evaporate at a very rapid pace and at standard oil change intervals do no harm.

I think the saying a little knowledge is a dangerous thing applies here. Practical application of stats and probabilities is more useful. To reiterate, vast majority of users don’t even follow warm up procedures and the OEMs need to account for that in design. I personally wait to 175+ to “get on it” but even that is likely unnecessary.

Needing to exceed 212 to evap water is just not true*** or cars would have cooling systems calibrated towards this goal (they aren’t as mixed highway / local driving / normal driving in most automatic transmission cars run below this temp). 212 or just above may be a “sweet spot” but much higher starts to cause problems ... good advice is good but maybe too much good advice isn’t so good?

*** particularly given oil change intervals

kmetros

Most mainstream manufacturers design their engine temperature needle to stay in one place once the engine is warm even though actual engine temps may vary as much as 20 or 25 degrees. They do it to keep the masses from running back to the dealership thinking something is wrong with their car. Porsche assumes we know better and shows actual engine temps. Just drive the damn thing. Rain. Shine. Snow. These cars do it all well. But yes, let it get warm before driving it hard.