Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaems
I posted some grafts, many years ago, over on the 912 Registry, to show what I am about to say here. The opt temp for a air cool engine and that includes the 911 is 175-185 degrees anything more and you start loosing the longevity of the engine, period. This is what the test proved.
Back when these cars were new. You could rebuild one for about $300. So the factory did not think that getting 25K from a engine was bad. So having a running temp of 240 was OK. They would rebuild the engine every 25K or so.
You do not need 212 degrees to boil the water from the oil. The water will evaporate as you drive at opt driving temp. It will take a little longer.
To each his own, I run a full flow filter and a front oil cooler. My engine stays around 175 degrees no matter what the ambient temp is. I have a thermostat that will not open to the front cooler until 175 degrees . So it doesn't matter how spirited I drive the engine runs cool.
Last weekend in the 95 + heat of the 4th July parade. Water pumpers were dropping like flies from over heating. My engine stayed at about 175 the whole time. At 1 to 3 MPH it was actually harder on the clutch than it was on the engine.
I have a number temp gauge. So if your temp gauge is about a quarter the way up it is in the 175-185 degree range opt driving. If it is half way it is about 220-225 degrees, three quarters is about 240-250 degrees. Obviously it is hotter in the sump.
What all this means, if your engine runs about 175-185 degrees and your friends run at 212-220 and you both drive the same. You will or should get more miles from your engine, than he will. However, if you drive it like a race car then you must maintain it like a race car. That means rebuild that engine once or twice a season.
So if you live in an area that is very hot with a lot of humidity. Then it can be advantageous to have a front oil cooler. You do not want to replace the normal cooler with the front. You would want to have both type of coolers. My lines come out of the oil pump cover.
The drop in temp would depend on the degrees of when the thermostat opened. Like I have said my thermostat opens about 175 degrees. I am only guessing a little on this, my gauges are metric. If by chance my engine ever hits about 212 with the cooler. Without the front cooler my engine would have been burnt up.
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I had an SC front cooler installed. This did drop down the temperature considerably but in the hot SA climate and with some spirited driving I figured this was not enough. So I had a (very similar shape to the SC brass cooler) metal cooler made up and installed it on the opposite side (essentially running all pipes all around the car). This dropped down the high rev temperature buy (ANOTHER) 10º C or so – all together a drop of about a 25º C.