Water or Oil temp before pushing it?
 

Question for my 986 friends. For those that wait for their coolant temp to reach 160 or more (or whatever the acceptable temp is) before going over 4000rpm: if you had an oil temp indicator would you wait for the oil to reach 160 instead before you pushed the rpms.

The reason I ask is my 981 shows oil temp and it takes from 8 to 10 miles to reach this temp where as the coolant temp reaches much sooner like the 986 does. My theory is the new oil now a days is such high quality that the water temp waiting period is plenty.

I generally wait for my water temp. gauge to peg midway (operating temp.) before getting on the throttle.

But if I did have an oil gauge, I likely would still wait on the coolant just to be on the cautious side. :D

IMHO the oil temp is what really counts

Oil temp is what really matters.

Oil.................

Always oil and it takes almost twice as long for the oil to get to it's normal operating temperature than the water.

As an owner of an aircooled (oil cooled) Porsche, you'd be amazed how L O N G it takes for the oil temp to come up to operating temp. Best to wait before you get too giggy with it.

Nice to hear the 981 instrument cluster has the oil temp gauge, like the 911's do. I wish my 987 did. I've know some 987 owners with Sport Chrono who have removed the stopwatch and added an oil temp gauge instead. Smart.

Yes, oil temp is the most critical. However, as I recall from tests, synthetic oil is MUCH more effective at lower temperatures than petroleum products - even on cold winter start-ups. I suspect that once your water temperature is up to normal operating temperatures, a good synthetic will do just fine at lubrication even though it is still somewhat cooler than ideal.

Brad

May I ask why you wait that long? Once the car is started and the oil has a chance to circulate through the engine I believe you're ready. Isn't that why we use multi viscosity oils? A warmer engine is more efficient (to a point) but just because it hasn't reached operating temp shouldn't destroy it. Maybe I'm naive from years of working with emergency diesels and there is a difference

Yes the oil has to reach the right temp for optimum lubrication but just as important is that the entire engine block and head have to reach normal temps so that the clearances are in their normal operating range before you push it.

When an engine is cold, the clearances are tighter and the cold oil does not penetrate and flow quite as well through the tighter clearances.

I doubt anyone is damaging the engine if you occasionally overdo it while cold, but there will be more wear and tear if you do it on a regular basis.

5 minutes is adequate except perhaps in very frigid conditions.

An Oil Pressure guage is the most valuable instrument in my opinion because you know immediately whether oil is flowing through the engine properly.

With Oil Temp guage you may have NO oil flowing (Blocked passages) and you would not know it until the coolant started over heating..

The first 5 seconds after engine startup is the most important in terms of wear and tear.

The current manufacturer's recommendations typically are to drive the car rather than leaving it to idle to warm up. However, this does not mean that one should dirve it hard until it is warm. I never rev beyong 4000 rpm until it has come up to operating temperature; indeed, if outside ambient temperature is below 60 degrees F, I short-shift at about 3000 rpms until warm.

Remember, it is not just the engine that is cold, but also the transmission. Since they often take even longer to warm up in cold temperatures, I shift slowly until well after the water temperature gauge has hit center. I also double clutch my downshifts, althouigh I also do this even when the car is warm.

Brad

Thanks for all the feed back. It seems a lot of folks like using oil temp as the deciding factor. Since none of our 986s have this what do you use for messurement? I'm sure my 986 gets up to temp some time before the oil is up so I have been just waiting for water temp. What was interesting was my 981 showed that just waiting for the water temp wasn't enough and now I'm wondering if I should wait longer on my 986.

We are saying oil temp but don't have the ability to do that so I'm guessing folks just wait 10 mins instead of using water temp as the factor.

I'm not yet a Boxster owner, but I have many years of both street car and race car experience. Before I would romp on any engine I would like to see about 200 degrees oil temp before hand. If the oil is much cooler than that, it will be relatively thick and not want to flow as it needs to for high RPM operation. It will take several miles past the point of full operating coolant temperature, before the oil temp will be at that level. Since German cars typically bring the coolant temperature up faster than domestic cars, I would want to see maybe 6 or 8 more easily driven miles before pressing very hard on the loud pedal.

Remember, when the oil is cold, the oil pressure will be high. As the oil warms up and thins out, it will have less resistance to flow, thus the oil pressure will decrease. Do some experimenting and see how long it must run before the oil pressure reaches its lowest pressure reading. The oil pressure will peg the gauge with the engine revving up at any temperature, so watch for idle pressure.

My $0.02,

I think that most 986 drivers just use water temp and hope for the best. Why? Ease of use.

What is amazing is how much heat the Boxster retains on shut down. Understandable since the engine is hidden in the middle of the car. These cars take forever to drop the latent heat.

Conversely, my 993 drops heat like a rock once parked.

The contrast is pretty shocking. But I'm easily amused.

so the big ugly wart turned out to be good for something afterall. Now why didn't Fritz think of that first?

I used mine to suction-cup the Garmin to.:)

But how would I know what my lap time to get milk is compare to the week before?

Not true. I saw a graph someone posted from data they'd logged on a 996 3.4 It only took an additional two minutes for the oil to reach temp after the coolant. Can't remember how long it took the coolant, but roughly in the 10 to 15 minute range.

Well, they have something like, what, 20 litres of coolant and getting on for 10 litres of oil. Plus all the metal, that's a lot of heat soak to dissipate. Think it's more those quantities than the mid engine bit. I doubt a 996 looses temp much quicker than a 986.