How long to get up to temp?
 

Hi Guys,

trying to decide if my thermostat is sticking open or not fully closing, my car seems to take a long time to get up to temperature.

Sure, its almost winter here at the moment, but we are still around 16-20 degrees celcius and my car takes about 20minutes driving to come up to temperature. This seems a bit long to me as my other cars are up in about 5mins.

Should I change thermostats?

Sam

I run mine in the garage about 5 minutes first thing, that get's the temp gauge to the first mark (~100). From there, it's about 7 minutes driving (my house to the ramp getting on the expressway) before it hits 180.

Based on that, mine is taking too long then?

Sam

The temperatures here in Queensland are classed sub tropical, but on average after ~ 2-3 minutes warmup in the garage, my coolant temp hits its normal running range (80 deg C) after approx 5-6 km of light 80 km/hr (50 mph) running.
So your 20 minutes of run time before the gauge gets to normal seems excessive.....
Obviously oil temps trail this by some margin.
Don't forget that these guages are notoriously innacurate though - the slow reaction could be caused by the 'stat or the guage.
I replaced my 75,000 km thermostat last year with the LN Eng low temp 'stat and noticed the initial temp rise from cold was quicker than the original unit.

My Experience
 

This morning the ambient temperature was 12C. I never idle the Box in the garage, nor anywhere before driving off. She came up to 180 degrees after eighteen minutes of easy driving. Hope this comparison helps.

Imho
 

My owner's manual says "Do not let the engine idle to warm up." And, "...be ready to drive immediately."

Your owner's manual also tells you to do other things that are also known to be dumb..............

I only wait as long as it takes for the secondary air pump system to cycle off (usually about 30-40 seconds). Then easy driving for about 3 miles with several stop lights (5-7min). By then my water temp is at 'normal' and then I can get on if I feel like it.

8 to 10 miles/~16km
 

to get to the normal temp mark with the heater running on such a mild day. That is running off immediately but RPMs at < 2500 25-30 MPH for the first 2 miles, then 55 MPH but no hard acceleration or over 3k RPM until fully warm.

Verified this morning after the Boxster sat over night as I went for a light bulb for the Honda. I'm conscious of it as it only gets to that point as I hit the nearest store so I know I don't open it up till on the way back.

Mike,
Are you running the standard Porsche thermostat in your engine...?

Sounds like there is quite a variance out there! I have a Innovate Motorsports OT-2 which can log the coolant temperature. I assume that will be more accurate than the dash gauge?

Sounds like I might be ordering a low temp thermo soon anyway!

Sam