Engine Thermostat, Low Temperature (begins opening at 160 deg F)

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by thstone

The higher temp thermostat on a street car is also related to oil change duration.

Running a low temp thermostat may not allow the engine to heat up (depending on the weather and your driving) enough to burn off the moisture in the oil on a regular basis. Running the 186 deg thermostat tries to make sure that the engine gets to full temp more readily and thus allows Porsche (and almost all other car makers) to extend oil changes to more than 10,000 miles.

In actual fact, it works the other way around: As noted above, the combination of engine vacuum in the sump and 170-180F coolant temps has demonstrated (by multiple used oil analyses) that there is no fuel or water contamination increase when running the lower temp stat; and the lower oil temps afforded by the lower coolant temps lengthened the oils ability to stay in grade, not shortened it.

[78F350]

....wrong thread...

[Mig]

So, why are we not replacing the radiator fan limit switches to have the fans kick in at lower coolant temperatures?

[j.fro]

Originally Posted by Mig

So, why are we not replacing the radiator fan limit switches to have the fans kick in at lower coolant temperatures?

On my AX car I've wired in a pair of manual switches for the fans. The temp gauge never hits the 180 mark now (I don't let it). High temps are the enemy of the m96 engine!

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by Mig

So, why are we not replacing the radiator fan limit switches to have the fans kick in at lower coolant temperatures?

The radiator fans are controlled by software in the DME, not switches. Changing when they go on and off requires reprogramming the DME, which is anything but easy.