Mid-Engine Cooling

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by lkchris

I think it safe to assume Boxster cooling was thoroughly tested by Porsche.

Good to understand that a sustained high-speed Autobahn run will get the engine hotter than any other sort of use. Basically, it's more fuel burned equals more heat. Not a lot of heat generated idling, but plenty generated at sustained high rpms. Electric fans are lots better than the attached-to-the-water-pump fans of old mericun iron---where the fan runs at idle speed, too. Apples and oranges.

I believe that burning fuel, actually helps to keep the engine cooler, and a lean mixture will quickly overheat an engine (and put a hole on your piston..), this is a well known fact on aviation engines

Also believe that be cruising at top speed is much better for the engine than sitting in a traffic jam on the middle of the summer with the AC on and without proper airflow.

However, this conclusions are from my own observations and I am no an engine expert by any means...

[Gelbster]

Agree but remaining problem is heat soak in extreme conditions.
Simplest,reversible solution (detailed previously) is to relocate the engine bay temp sensor to a hotter location.

[lkchris]

Originally Posted by Gilles

I believe that burning fuel, actually helps to keep the engine cooler, and a lean mixture will quickly overheat an engine (and put a hole on your piston..), this is a well known fact on aviation engines

Also believe that be cruising at top speed is much better for the engine than sitting in a traffic jam on the middle of the summer with the AC on and without proper airflow.

However, this conclusions are from my own observations and I am no an engine expert by any means...

Comparing mixture characteristics and rpm is apples/oranges--assume proper mixture for any useful discussion.

So, I had a 1984 BMW motorcycle with an oil cooler with a thermostat controlling whether oil circulated through it. The only time it did was during high-speed riding ... never in traffic. If you don't like "burning fuel" how about "doing work?" Conversion of fuel to energy is a heat-generating process. More energy (work) equals more heat. It takes a LOT of energy to push a car to 100 mph and virtually none to sit and idle.

As I previously alluded, many of us are conditioned to remembering old-time engines overheating when idling. That's NOT because they are generating more heat--it's because the water pump-mounted fan is turning at idle speed and doing next to no cooling. For our Boxsters, there's no such thing as "without proper airflow" because the fans are electric.

This is just basic physics, and there's also no way running faster is better for an engine than running slower--just as there's no way a tire lasts longer at low mileage versus high mileage. Just add up the total revolutions.