Can someone tell men what is the normal oil temperature I should expect on my 997? What would be considered high to be concerned? Can high oil temperature be a sign of oil change needed? 20k miles for oil change recommended?

 

The standard, low effort, oil temp is 200F. When the engine works spiritedly up a climb can be 220F. 260F would be high.

Before the oil temp reaches 190-200F engine revs should be kept below 4k RPM.

I like to change oil every 6000 miles or 12 months whichever is lower.

 

Basically, coolant flow is regulated to hold a steady temperature once the car warms up. Memory falters but I think it's 190F on a 997. Maybe 200F. What is it Tony? This stable temp gives the designers for the rest of the subsystems a reference point for their work. Temperature control is vital to modern emissions control.

Oil dumps heat into the coolant and the air flowing over the oil coolers, but it isn't regulated. It directly reflects how hard the engine is working. I agree with Tony's numbers. (ADias that is) I see 200F normally, 220F in casual track laps, and 240F in successive hot laps of a time trial in Southern California ambient temperatures. If I saw 260F I would figure something is wrong and I'd pit the car. I can't imagine circumstances on public roads that would produce 260F.

Temps have nothing to do with needing an oil change. I change my oil every 7,000 miles so with Tony at six and me at seven you have a consensus of engineers. (At least the ones who've spoken up so far.) We like to change oil a lot more often than the book recommendation.

Gary

 

If you often run high oil temp exceed 240F, say 250F (track use) then change the engine oil every 3,000 miles. For any reason, if oil temp reach 280F or higher for extend period then change the engine oil immediately

For normal drive + spirit drive sometime, I would change the oil every 7,000 miles or max. 10,000 miles if there is a lot of high way use (7,000 miles prefered)

In any case, Never ever go for 20,000 miles.

 

My oil temp hovers around 200 plus or minus 10.
I change every 5-7000 km (3-5000 miles)

 

Since water boils at 212 F, I like my oil temp to be at least half way between the 200 and 225 mark on the dial. So I don't understand why anyone would want to be below that.

I did my last oil change at 8000 miles, and per the blackstone report:

"MATTHEW: No problems to report in this first sample from your Porsche. Universal averages for the Carerra S 3.8L engine show typical wear levels after ~5,100 miles of oil use. Since you've gone an extra few thousand miles on your oil, we don't mind the fact that iron and some of the other metals are slightly above average. That's normal as wear accumulates with more time on the oil, and these levels don't indicate any
problems. No harmful contaminants or other issues were detected, so everything here looks really good. We don't see any issues at 39,400 miles."

I'll try and shoot for 7500 miles for my next oil change, and for what it's worth I'm an engineer too like Gary and Tony... but I build robots, not prime movers so take it all with a grain of salt.

 

Unless you're running your car at elevated temperatures - which you should not be if it's running properly -(I'm not talking about track time) then there is no need to exceed the factory recommended schedules. Once a year or 10-15,000 miles depending on the car. Of course, you can change it as much as you want but the factory specifications are perfectly fine. You can, of course, change it monthly if you like to spend money for the sake of spending money.

If your tracking it regularly, you'll have a completely different maintenance schedule.

 

Oil temperature is about 200-210 here in the Southeast, when driving in cities. I like to change my oil every 6000-7000 miles. Of course, always use a new filter. The filter is the most important part of the oil change.

Yves

 

+1 on mileage or every year when it's in for its annual inspection.

I'm also getting a third radiator, since I live in a "hot as hell in the summer" state. Around $300.00 for the kit from Suncoast + labor = cheap insurance for longer engine life.