Oil Starvation

[Col986]

Originally Posted by insite

another note on oil starvation:

there is a piston/spring assembly inside the oil pump that varies oil pressure with temperature. when the car is cold, it's designed to increase the pressure to around 100psi. once the car warms up, it backs off to 'normal'.

my car was running about 16-17psi (hot) at idle, which seems low to me. on a hunch, i ordered a new piston & spring. interestingly, the new piston has a chamfered edge whereas the original piston had a sharp edge. this leads me to believe that porsche suspected some binding of the piston assembly in some instances......

at any rate, with the new piston / spring installed, the car is now at 23psi hot. i never logged the oil pressure under load, so i have no idea what (if any) effect it has on pressure at RPM, but i certainly feel a little better. loss of oil pressure at temp is a big concern in the M96. anything that reduces the risk to that end is a win in my book. cost is less than $20 and you can do it in 5 minutes when you change your oil.

FYI, part numbers are:

Piston: 997.107.125.01 ($ 5.00)
Spring: 996.107.127.53 ($10.00)
Gasket: 996.107.123.50 ($ 2.00)

I know this is a very old thread, however I looked back through all the old posts to see what upgrades I should do on my 2004 986 S (550 anniv) whilst doing the IMS upgrade.

I ordered the above mentioned parts, only to find they were identical to what was already installed. Not sure when the the upgraded parts became standard.

[BoxsterSteve]

Originally Posted by Col986

I know this is a very old thread, however I looked back through all the old posts to see what upgrades I should do on my 2004 986 S (550 anniv) whilst doing the IMS upgrade.

I ordered the above mentioned parts, only to find they were identical to what was already installed. Not sure when the the upgraded parts became standard.

I bought these parts too... less than $23 after taxes, a cheap DIY. Can't hurt after 15 years, I figure.
If I recall, these upgraded bits came onstream in 2003 or 2004, so I'm all in putting them in my 2000.