Earlierapex

I'm getting oil temps upwards of 275/280 within about 15-20 min in a session and water temps of 220 or so on hot track days at Sebring in the summer. I know Porsche says oil up to 290 is ok, but that seems a little nuts (and they need to sell engines...). Has anyone tried an additional or larger oil cooler? Any suggested products? Just having more mass/volume in the system should bring temps down. What is the ideal oil temp for GT4 and C4 engine?

A few thoughts and things I've tried (would welcome feedback!):
1) 98 octane helps
2) anyone tried a real race oil with more zinc (amsoil or similar)? I've got headers, no cats.
3) I need to be able to run water (no coolant) for races; any "race approved" additive suggestions?
4) it does cool down very quickly within a 1/4 lap if you lay off and short shift for just a few turns, so the system clearly works well.

I find it hard to believe that a 2 or 3 day weekend of hard running in the summer heat at 275+ wouldn't be an issue for the oil.

txbdan

Get your oil tested and find out for sure. I've done up to four track weekends hitting 265Fish on Driven DI40 and the oil analysis came back great. No loss of viscosity, no wear, plenty of additives left.

ledbette

In the August 2016 issue of Panorama, there was a discussion with the director of GT4 ClubSport development that indicated the Porsche was not concerned with oil temps as high as 290F in 73F ambient temps racing in the GT4 ClubSport, which has the standard GT4 cooling system.

Quadcammer

290 at the sensor is what at the mains and rods? I would consider a deep oil sump which seems to help a bit. Porsche lies, so I'd want those temps as cool as possible.

DrJupeman

I have recently made a similar post in the GT4 Clubsport forum and in the GT4 forum. My oil temps at the last two races, ambients high 80s to low 90s, have hit 300 and the car has warned to "reduce load". Another CS in the same race, running basically with me ran notably cooler (20 degrees). He does not have AC, I do. I am skeptical the condensers alone are the culprit, but I will ask you: do you have AC?

I am trying to deduce what else to do or check.

ledbette

The oil temps you're checking, are those from the dashboard display, or are you looking at the CANbus sensor values? I ask because (assuming the ClubSport is the same as the base) the value displayed on the dash is a combination of several different sensors, and blends the PDK oil temp with the engine oil temp.

It would be interesting to see the CANbus readings from all the individual temperature sensors on both cars during that run to see if your cooling system was fully heat-soaked and couldn't get the coolant temperature down low enough to pull down the oil temps. Running in traffic also drives up coolant/oil temps vs. running in clean air.

PS-GT4

We’re all the CS GT4’s PDK?

zedcat

yes, 981 and 718. It is the box from the 981 base with 7th gear programmed out.

DrJupeman

CANbus readings. I was in clean air for just about the entire second race this past Saturday. I'll see what other temps the AIM system pulled in.

Kitc2246

You indicate you have added headers with no cats. That gave you extra HP and extra heat. Wrapping your headers is another relatively inexpensive option I get similar symptoms with my 981 S PDK but 280 is the highest I've ever seen. Like yours mine will quickly drop during cool down. Short shifting with the paddles helps. My water temp gauge never moves off of 194 so I have always suspected the capacity of the oil heat exchanger followed by the PDK cooler. The GT4s have a larger oil heat exchanger already. Believe you can get a larger PDK cooler that would indirectly help the engine oil temp.

The AC condensers obviously restrict the air flow. There is a thread with a full race 987.2 chasing a GT4 that has great oil temps, but he has no AC and upgraded to all of the GT4 cooling bits plus an added large PDK and diff cooler.

I have seen threads where Porsche and Mobil 1 were not concerned with temps at 280-300. As already stated doing oil analysis to determine if you are getting viscosity breakdown should be done. .

Did you have a tune when you added the headers? If you did I'd have a conversation with your tuner if they had any experience with controlling oil temps without sacrificing HP.

Most of us mid engine guys worry about oil temps, so keep us posted.

DrJupeman

No headers, this is a stock GT4 Clubsport*. Where did you think I referenced headers? (Sorry if this was a reply to OP)

*an MR Evo, but the MR and Evo packages don't touch the power unit.

Kitc2246

It was Earlierapex that said he had headers.

Earlierapex

Updates - I do have A/C, so the condensers may be impacting airflow. I'm not sure where the oil temp reading is coming from, but I have a motec dash. It routinely shows a much lower temp than the stock dash, so I assume it is a true engine oil reading. My stock dash shows warning lights pretty much every session, so I just watch the motec. Higher octane definitely helps, and I don't have a tune on it.

Fullyield

A quick comment re: race oils and zinc or ZDDP. It is a wear additive for iron parts only such as camshaft lobes on flat tappet cams and crankshafts. It is bad for catalytic converters but you have catless headers. Zinc does nothing for aluminum. Moly is the additive for aluminum parts. Mfgrs have moved away from zinc because less iron in engines these days and catalytic converter issues (which is not a concern for you). But you can buy ZDDP Plus and Ceratec or MOS2 and boost the zinc and moly of any oil. The advantages/disadvantages of doing this are hotly debated on this forum and in others. You might consider a 5W-50 oil if not using it already. Ceratec, if added, will thin it a little. You also can use a Cobb Accessport or Durametric to data log your sensor temp values for comparison. This will also allow you to record PDK oil temps separately. Best wishes on resolving your issue.

ledbette

Wonder if the problem is not the engine oil temp, but the PDK fluid temp? If you're having a higher reading on the stock dash than the motec, that would seem to indicate you likely have a higher PDK fluid temp than engine oil temp, as the stock reading is a combination of the two. Does the Motec have the CANbus info to pull the PDK temp?