txhokie4life

Owned several Boxster's -- this is to be my first to be put on a track.

This will be a low mods, drive to the track car. Figure 1-2 track days a month.
I an intermediate level driver -- so I'll be pushing it hard -- but not that hard (I think :-)

I'm a firm believer of keeping oil temps lower, especially here in Texas.
If I wanted to add an oil cooler, where would be the best place to put it?
I can't see routing all the way to the front of the car and I'm not sure
where else would be reasonable.

Been awhile since I've had a Boxster on a rack -- isn't there hollow spaces
behind the rear wheels, or are they stuffed with the cats?

I'm debating about the 1/2" extended oil pan -- I'm
concerned the 2qt system is just too low for any drive to the track car.

thanks,

Mike
__________________

Macster

Another oil cooler brings with it the necessity to add some kind of thermostat control to avoid overcooling the oil. It also adds considerably to the engine's oil capacity. A co-worker has a 993 engine in his 914 and runs an oil cooler and the very large lines and cooler brings the oil capacity up to an estimated 16 quarts of oil.

Add a 3rd radiator. This will lower coolant temps and this lowers oil temps. You might explore a modification that would have the radiator fans on all the time but still switching to the high speed when (if) coolant temp climbs to the usual trigger level.

Also, you have to install a oil temp gage to monitor oil temps to really know what is going on.

A larger oil sump capacity is probably appropriate provided of course it is properly baffled and a longer pick up is installed. This deeper pan and increased oil capacity helps ensure the pick up gets liquid oil and not oil with any residual air. It is not the lack of oil that I think brings on oiling problems with these engines but oil that is not properly defoamed.

These mods and showing up at the track with very fresh oil I believe should be more than enough.

Where many track enthusiasts fall down is they drive their cars around town "easy" for a time then show up at the track with oil that has gotten rather diluted with water and then at the track this oil is marginal.

txhokie4life

Macster -- appreciate your comments.

I don't mind the extra oil capacity. I am a little worried about ground clearance.
I might look to adding a skid plate if I lower the pan more than 0.5qt.

My chump car runs 8 qts and my RSR somewhere above 20 with 1.5" lines.
Before we added the oil cooler on the 924s, we saw oil temps > 240, now we barely
tap the 210 range. Of course that's a race car only and we dump the oil every race.

A few extra bucks in oil far outweighs the time and effort and $$ for a engine.

I already have gauges for oil temp and oil pressure. I have a sandwich plate and adapters
from LN lying around. A few years back I was going to build a Spec Boxster S, but my avatar
fell into my lap.

I could add a electrical switch to block off the oil cooler -- but I'm not that worried about
not getting the oil up to temp enough.

Back when I was going to build a pure track car -- I was going to put the oil cooler in the
trunk and vent the rear deck with a fan.

But since this will be a combined vehicle -- I'm thinking I want to keep the trunk as is.

Mike

42empress

I just sold mine but was planning to add 3rd radiator at some point and maybe accusump. Although, the previous owner of mine tracked it for years, on R comps no less, with just the larger sump and baffles without an issues. The motor is a 3.4 directly from porsche. At least 10K+ track miles on the new motor. Granted, overall mileage is still relatively low.

The other thing is to really make sure the radiators are clear of debris. I had a small leak in one of the condensers and found that 1/4 of the condenser was not letting air pass through due to accumulation of dirt in the freon leakage.

Mark Dreyer

You don't need an oil cooler. I have at least 10k track miles on my Boxster S mostly at Sebring, which as you can imagine is about as hot a place there is to track a car in the summer. My engine has never missed a beat. I almost wish it would blow so I could put in a bigger engine and try to hang with faster cars! I have almost 90k miles on the car. The engine temperature never goes up too high either. Put your $ into an overdrive pulley. That will save you blowing the power steering pump.

Macster

Before you mod the car take time to look at what others are doing, others that are successful, finish their races, etc. Walk through the pits and observe.

Another problem with an oil cooler with these wet sump engines is the oil will drain down and raise the oil level in the sump. Depending upon how much extra oil the cooler and lines require to fill this can be a substantial amount. If the cooler and lines are higher than the sump the entire extra oil volume will end up in the sump after the engine is shut off.

You have to worry about what effect this has on how quickly the oil pump can build pressure as it has to pressurize considerably more volume presented by the oil lines and cooler.

Adding more coolant cooling capacity is what Porsche does when heat loads go up. This lowers the oil temp but also lowers the coolant temperature and the engine runs cooler throughout because of it. It is also a bit easier to do and the coolant flow is already controlled by a T-stat. Coolant level will not be a problem either as the existing coolant tank level will still apply. Coolant capacity of course will go up.

I'm not a fan of adding an underdrive pulley. The last thing I would want to do to an engine on the track is slow down coolant flow through the engine.

Take a flat bottom pan and fill with an inch of water and put on the stove on med. heat. When the water gets hot enough to form bubbles on the bottom of the pan gently swish the water around. Note the bubbles are dislodged and if you keep the swishing the bubbles do not reform. Put the pan down on the stove some more and get the water hotter. The bubbles form more rapidly and get bigger. Swish the water around again. Notice how you have to swish the water more violently to dislodge the bubbles.

If the coolant flow is not sufficiently strong enough/fast enough it will not dislodge the bubbles that can form at the hottest places in the engine and localized overheating can result.

Now I understand the concern about the power steering pump. But I wonder how many pumps are actually destroyed by just being used on the track vs. those that were possibly run low on fluid due to a leak or possibly a failure of a pressure relief or control valve. It is a valve problem that can result in overpressurizing the rack and forcing fluid out past the seals, the fluid which then collects in the dust boots. The power steering pump runs low on fluid and the next thing you know the owner takes to the track and the pump blows up.

Even if the pump without any other factors is at risk I'd seriously explore another solution/preventative measure before I'd slow down the water pump. I mean, risk an engine to possibly save a power steering pump? Not the trade off I'd make.

Mark Dreyer

My power steering pump was destroyed within the first year of tracking. After putting in the overdrive pulley I've had a couple years of successful tracking with no repeat of the pump failure and no engine cooling issues. I forgot to mention in the previous post that I did place a Brey Krause oil pan extension kit.

txhokie4life

Whats the symptom of a PS pump going out?

Just in case :-)

Mike

Mark Dreyer

It was really hard to turn the steering wheel. If I recall correctly when it started going out, there was loud noises when turning.

Bill Lehman

On my Cayman S, I run the Mantis deep sump (+2 qts) and with the car lowered 1", have not had problems with bottoming. I do have a motorsports oil/air separator and third radiator. I trashed my power steering system and added a P/S cooler. I added the smaller pulley but question its value. I suspect low fluid level is a factor since it is as PITA to check. The car has 78 track days on it running in Instructor run group.

gfl

In testing, the 0.5L sump didn't do all that much, but the 2L/qt one did. I just put one in with quite interesting baffling - look at the kit from Pedrosgarage.com. While it is lower, it is very streetable. I take this car, even lowered (PSS9s) on errands and to work here on pot-hold NJ roads.

As to oil, i honestly just use oil that can take the higher heat - slightly thicker. Trade off is being very easy until its warm.

Macster's point about diluted oil is excellent. The real answer, of course, is to get the stuff hot and boil it off.

Grant

cvazquez

Congratulations... Now it's a slippery slope... Tracking, I LOVE IT!

perfectlap

Which pulley did you get?

Mark Dreyer

Sorry I don't know but will contact the mechanic who did the work and report back.

txhokie4life

Saturday I spent the day at the shop.

Did the BK roll bar extension,
BK deep sump kit (1/2 qt) & BES baffle kit.
Dumped in some Amsoil and
threw a set of Cool Carbons I had laying around.

Car already had SS brake lines and Racing Blue brake fluid.

Stole the Direzza's from my 951 and took the family to my track yesterday and had a blast.

First time I got my daughter & wife on track -- and even had the pleasure of having my wife drive.
Car ran great, we all had a blast.

Probably the most enjoyable 2 hours of track time I've ever had.

Worth every penny.

cheers,

Mike