Oil and spark plug replacement
 

Hi can anyone give me advice on what oil to use for oil change and also need to replace spark plugs on my 2004 canary yellow pride and joy Porsche Boxster 986 . Its done 79k I do a lot of town driving and stop starting due to the nature of my care job , I want to use the best possible to keep her tip top.
Many thanks in advance.

You're going to get lots of opinions on oil. Check your manual and use the oil grade that best fits your climate. I use Mobil1 10w-40.

Spark plugs? Generally, if it's not having difficulties starting, and/or idling a little rough, they should be good. It's common for spark plugs to last 100K miles on modern cars with precise gas metering.

DT-40 is the only oil made just for our engines. The best spark plugs have multiple electrode's (prongs) & Iridium coating.

Hi BYP,

The multiple electrodes... the iridium coating... can you share why those are the type to install? When 13K miles ago I replaced my sparkplugs I used the OEM brand... and after careful reading and research.

Since, to me and in my opinion, you're one of the 6-7 "sharper minds" upon this forum I respect your recommendation... and advice. Which brand and type do you recommend?

In advance, thank you.

First of all, the use of iridium is not as a coating, but as a solid metal electrode, typically a fine wire type tips. Iridium has properties that make it ideal for use in plugs: Excellent electrical conductivity, incredible heat resistance, and it is very hard physically. Typically, iridium plugs (like Denso) are single electrode designs, as they do not suffer from the issues more common metal electrodes do. These properties make them long lived (100K miles is common), and excellent choices for "plug killer" applications like turbo charged engines.

https://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/media/c...Iridium-TT.jpg

On the plugs I would follow JFP's recommendation. I personally have switched over to the DT-40 DRIVEN brand in my 2001 Boxster S. I have spoken to Lake Speed from DRIVEN many times and will be switching over to their products in all of our vehicles when its their next oil change cycle.

I use regular old copper plugs and they seem to work just fine.

Where's Kram when we need him? He's got more opinions about spark plugs than anyone else on the forum, I think.

Unless you're building a higher-performance package than what Porsche did, then I don't know why you'd feel like straying far from what Porsche selected. Some of us have brand / type preferences and loyalties, but that's all they are; personal preferences.

Now, if you're planning to increase cylinder pressures, then you may want to look at a better plug. JFP is right on the money about the Iridium plugs.
Multi-electrode plugs are usually reserved for people with increased cylinder pressure who are too lazy to index their plugs. (that's just my opinion, of course... ;-) )

Same sort of thinking goes for the oil; are you doing something with the motor that Porsche didn't intend when they selected an oil specification? Revving it higher / more-frequently? If the answer is no, then stick to what your owners' manual says. If the answer is yes, then you've opened pandora's box. Many people will tell you their snake-oil is best. Some will even tell you that theirs is developed specifically for your engine, yet you go to their website and it says nothing at all about your engine, specifically, but rather generalities that encompass your engine; same as every other oil manufacturer.
If you're racing, look for what the longtime racers use. (But find racers who aren't selling anything... guys making racing into a business all have some sort of skin in the game, even if they don't sell oil).

I'm a fan of "boutique" oils; RedLine, Royal Purple, you get the idea. "Driven" would fall into that category, but I have zero experience with their product.

I track mine a lot, and after many, many conversations and hours of reading, and in spite of my affinity for boutique oils, I use Castrol Edge in the Boxster. I change it regularly so its always fresh and clean. And I've modified the sump to try to ensure there's always oil at the pickup. Those last two items are worth MUCH more than what brand you use. MUCH, MUCH more.

There is nothing wrong with "old copper plugs", other than they wear out quicker. On applications where changing them is a royal pain (the Porsche turbo cars, where you have to remove a ton of stuff just to get at them), iridium plugs with some anti seize on them saves a ton of work as well as some $.

with that many miles and age of the boxster while you're doing plugs you may want to consider replacing the tubes/o rings at the same time. On mine with 51k miles 2 of the 6 tubes had a slight leak so i replaced them all with the plugs. Easy job if you make the DIY "tool" (washers on a bolt) and they're cheap so may as well if you are going through the trouble.

unless you know they've been done before or aren't a "while you're in there" kind of guy. oh and for oil i just use 0W-40 Mobile 1 synthetic from Wal Mart, honestly works just fine on my little 2.5 and you can get it on sale for $20/5 qt.

Tubes and o-rings are not replaceable items on his '04, the same way they are on your earlier box.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

/\ correct, i for some reason thought he said he had a 2000. well that is one job you don't have to do then!