Hello guys:
First of all I want to introduce myself in this kind comunity.
I love cars and specially Porsche brand.
I'm one of three admin. of best spanish-spoken Porsche forum site: www.soloporsche.com
I live in Madrid (Spain) and sometimes like reading you here to learn more about lubricants. In Madrid we have a few days cold winter temperatures about -4 ºC (24º F), but most days are about 4º C ( 40º F) not more than 3 month, warm weather rest of the year, and a hot summer at 40º C (105º F).
Madrid is a not very cold city so we don't need go for 0Wxx viscosity
My car is a Porsche 996 Carrera 2004 (3.6 l flat 6-cilinder 320 HP)
Porsche always recommends use Mobil 1 lubricants (Mobil 1 is Porsche official oil provider), and Porsche dealers use 0W40 normally
A Porsche 911 like mine is to enjoy driving ocassionally. I use it every weekend to go for a while driving in sharp bend roads and enjoy the feeling of a sport car.
Porsche recommends oil change intervals in this model each 20.000 km, but I change it each 10.000 km or one time a year (always including oil filter)
I use Mobil 1 5w50 because I think that 0W40 is too thin for this kind of engine and spanish climate conditions. The engine have more oil consumption with 0W40 than 5w50
When you use a sport car to enjoy at high rev. you know that the oil will wear before than other engines.
Porsche watercooled M96 family engines (996, Boxster) have been suffering a problem with reability since first time they were designed. One of the issues are broken bearing from Intermediate shaft which involves a disaster and a fully blown engine.
The Intermediate shaft bearing and other internal pieces could fail for different reasons.
Everyone of you know that a good lubricant supports the engine life.
There are lots of 996 blown engines and my porsche independent specialist mechanic, and other private Porsche experts don't like Mobil 1 performance.
My car is now in the workshop for an inspection and my mechanic recommends Valvoline Racing VR1 5W50, because he says that It's one of the best engine oils for this motor.
Other option was Motul 300 V 5w40
Charles Navarro from 'LN Engineering' did a pile of oil analisys to understand more about the engine problems and told us this:
What oil should I use in my newer Porsche requiring a "Porsche approved" oil, like the M96 engine?
We do not recommend use of most of the Porsche "approved" oils in any aircooled engine, including the 84 and later engines up to and including the 993 that are recommended to run these approved oils.
In the search for a "Porsche approved" oil, a quick glance at various Porsche owners manuals for a Turbo and GT2 as late as 2004 showed a recommendation for an API SH or SJ motor oil, so my recommendation is to find an approved oil with at least an API SL rating - an API SH or SJ would be even better. Additionally, try to use a 5w40 rather than a 0w40, as the viscosity with the narrower spread will have a higher high temperature high shear viscosity and should protect critical engine parts better at the upper limits. You do not need a 0w over a 5w until cold start temperatures are under -25C. Do not run any 0w30, 5w30, or 10w30 oil in your Porsche, aircooled engines included!
Coupled with Google and armed with the "overview of engine oils approved by Porsche "Porsche approval list", including some oils that no longer have Porsche approval but were approved at some point, here are some suggestions for oils. Remember, we're looking for an API, SH, SJ, or at worse case, SL rating AND meeting the ACEA A3/B3 specification. Remember, the earlier the API specification, the more likely the oil will be to have higher anti-wear additives. One such oil is Castrol Syntec 5w40, which carries Porsche Approval and an API SL rating.
Shown below are some alternative suggestions for 5w40 viscosity oils that are not necessarily Porsche Approved, but are of excellent quality nonetheless. I have noted some of these oils meet Volkswagen's 505.01 specification for PD TDI engines, which is very rigorous and in my opinion, is a standard requiring additional protection so much so that Mobil formulated a special version of 5w40 in an API SJ that is specific to the 505.01 standard. If cost was no object and I was out of the warranty period, Motul 300V or Redline would be two obvious choices. Mobil 1 0w40 and Delvac 1 5w40 shown for reference only. HTHS values per published values by manufacturer. We have selected just a few to show:
Although Motul Specific 5w40 API SJ has been discontinued, I have run it in my newer VWs with excellent results and have enough oil stockpiled to last a few more years before I have to worry about choosing another oil meeting the 505.01 specification. It had the highest HTHS viscosity of any oil we ever found, min 4.8 to max 5.1 for a 5.w40. Used oil testing showed the best wear results of any oil we have ever run. It was replaced by another Motul Specific VW oil, which now carries a 502.00 approval as well as the 505.01 specification. Interesting point it is the ONLY oil on the market that is a 502.00 oil that meets 505.01 requirements. Currently, we have base-line results (additional results here) for the Motul VW approved 505.01 spec motor oil required by VW. We have been and are currently testing many VW and Porsche approved 5w40 oils and several other non-approved ones to see how they perform in street and track use.
Another popular oil highly recommended on the Rennlist forums has been the Mobil 1 Truck and Diesel 5w40 that was an excellent choice up until May 2008, when it was "reformulated" to meet the standards of new diesel engines and hence, is not an API SM/CJ-4 rated oil. As I have stated previously, I don't have the same faith in backwards compatibility of these reformulated products because there just is not the evidence that they will do the same job over the long haul. To this effect, many fleet service related publications still recommend using SL/CI-4 oils in vehicles without particulate emissions filters, leaving the new reformulated oils only for those engines absolutely requiring these low Zn/P oils.
Of additional interest is a German Porsche AG Technical Bulletin "2000 Motoroelfreigaben", showing 10w40 and thicker oils are also an acceptable viscosity, which was previously considered as being too thick for these newer, non-variocam equipped engines. If that is the case, Mobil 1 High-Mileage 10w40 or even Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40 may be excellent non-approved candidates, the latter motorcycle oil for track use mostly and not recommended for use with catalytic converter equipped vehicles. The only exception to this are the 2001 and later engines with Variocam, since this system is sensitive to oil viscosity and will throw a CEL if the wrong viscosity is used. Another suggestion is to mix 50/50 Mobil 1 0w40 and Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40, to yield a product in the proper viscosity that is recommended with levels of anti-wear additives as originally recommended by Porsche, with an API SH or SJ rating.
So I'd like to know you oil experts to help me about what would be more suitable for my Porsche.
Thanks in advance
Joaquin
First of all I want to introduce myself in this kind comunity.
I love cars and specially Porsche brand.
I'm one of three admin. of best spanish-spoken Porsche forum site: www.soloporsche.com
I live in Madrid (Spain) and sometimes like reading you here to learn more about lubricants. In Madrid we have a few days cold winter temperatures about -4 ºC (24º F), but most days are about 4º C ( 40º F) not more than 3 month, warm weather rest of the year, and a hot summer at 40º C (105º F).
Madrid is a not very cold city so we don't need go for 0Wxx viscosity
My car is a Porsche 996 Carrera 2004 (3.6 l flat 6-cilinder 320 HP)
Porsche always recommends use Mobil 1 lubricants (Mobil 1 is Porsche official oil provider), and Porsche dealers use 0W40 normally
A Porsche 911 like mine is to enjoy driving ocassionally. I use it every weekend to go for a while driving in sharp bend roads and enjoy the feeling of a sport car.
Porsche recommends oil change intervals in this model each 20.000 km, but I change it each 10.000 km or one time a year (always including oil filter)
I use Mobil 1 5w50 because I think that 0W40 is too thin for this kind of engine and spanish climate conditions. The engine have more oil consumption with 0W40 than 5w50
When you use a sport car to enjoy at high rev. you know that the oil will wear before than other engines.
Porsche watercooled M96 family engines (996, Boxster) have been suffering a problem with reability since first time they were designed. One of the issues are broken bearing from Intermediate shaft which involves a disaster and a fully blown engine.
The Intermediate shaft bearing and other internal pieces could fail for different reasons.
Everyone of you know that a good lubricant supports the engine life.
There are lots of 996 blown engines and my porsche independent specialist mechanic, and other private Porsche experts don't like Mobil 1 performance.
My car is now in the workshop for an inspection and my mechanic recommends Valvoline Racing VR1 5W50, because he says that It's one of the best engine oils for this motor.
Other option was Motul 300 V 5w40
Charles Navarro from 'LN Engineering' did a pile of oil analisys to understand more about the engine problems and told us this:
What oil should I use in my newer Porsche requiring a "Porsche approved" oil, like the M96 engine?
We do not recommend use of most of the Porsche "approved" oils in any aircooled engine, including the 84 and later engines up to and including the 993 that are recommended to run these approved oils.
In the search for a "Porsche approved" oil, a quick glance at various Porsche owners manuals for a Turbo and GT2 as late as 2004 showed a recommendation for an API SH or SJ motor oil, so my recommendation is to find an approved oil with at least an API SL rating - an API SH or SJ would be even better. Additionally, try to use a 5w40 rather than a 0w40, as the viscosity with the narrower spread will have a higher high temperature high shear viscosity and should protect critical engine parts better at the upper limits. You do not need a 0w over a 5w until cold start temperatures are under -25C. Do not run any 0w30, 5w30, or 10w30 oil in your Porsche, aircooled engines included!
Coupled with Google and armed with the "overview of engine oils approved by Porsche "Porsche approval list", including some oils that no longer have Porsche approval but were approved at some point, here are some suggestions for oils. Remember, we're looking for an API, SH, SJ, or at worse case, SL rating AND meeting the ACEA A3/B3 specification. Remember, the earlier the API specification, the more likely the oil will be to have higher anti-wear additives. One such oil is Castrol Syntec 5w40, which carries Porsche Approval and an API SL rating.
Shown below are some alternative suggestions for 5w40 viscosity oils that are not necessarily Porsche Approved, but are of excellent quality nonetheless. I have noted some of these oils meet Volkswagen's 505.01 specification for PD TDI engines, which is very rigorous and in my opinion, is a standard requiring additional protection so much so that Mobil formulated a special version of 5w40 in an API SJ that is specific to the 505.01 standard. If cost was no object and I was out of the warranty period, Motul 300V or Redline would be two obvious choices. Mobil 1 0w40 and Delvac 1 5w40 shown for reference only. HTHS values per published values by manufacturer. We have selected just a few to show:
Although Motul Specific 5w40 API SJ has been discontinued, I have run it in my newer VWs with excellent results and have enough oil stockpiled to last a few more years before I have to worry about choosing another oil meeting the 505.01 specification. It had the highest HTHS viscosity of any oil we ever found, min 4.8 to max 5.1 for a 5.w40. Used oil testing showed the best wear results of any oil we have ever run. It was replaced by another Motul Specific VW oil, which now carries a 502.00 approval as well as the 505.01 specification. Interesting point it is the ONLY oil on the market that is a 502.00 oil that meets 505.01 requirements. Currently, we have base-line results (additional results here) for the Motul VW approved 505.01 spec motor oil required by VW. We have been and are currently testing many VW and Porsche approved 5w40 oils and several other non-approved ones to see how they perform in street and track use.
Another popular oil highly recommended on the Rennlist forums has been the Mobil 1 Truck and Diesel 5w40 that was an excellent choice up until May 2008, when it was "reformulated" to meet the standards of new diesel engines and hence, is not an API SM/CJ-4 rated oil. As I have stated previously, I don't have the same faith in backwards compatibility of these reformulated products because there just is not the evidence that they will do the same job over the long haul. To this effect, many fleet service related publications still recommend using SL/CI-4 oils in vehicles without particulate emissions filters, leaving the new reformulated oils only for those engines absolutely requiring these low Zn/P oils.
Of additional interest is a German Porsche AG Technical Bulletin "2000 Motoroelfreigaben", showing 10w40 and thicker oils are also an acceptable viscosity, which was previously considered as being too thick for these newer, non-variocam equipped engines. If that is the case, Mobil 1 High-Mileage 10w40 or even Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40 may be excellent non-approved candidates, the latter motorcycle oil for track use mostly and not recommended for use with catalytic converter equipped vehicles. The only exception to this are the 2001 and later engines with Variocam, since this system is sensitive to oil viscosity and will throw a CEL if the wrong viscosity is used. Another suggestion is to mix 50/50 Mobil 1 0w40 and Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40, to yield a product in the proper viscosity that is recommended with levels of anti-wear additives as originally recommended by Porsche, with an API SH or SJ rating.
So I'd like to know you oil experts to help me about what would be more suitable for my Porsche.
Thanks in advance
Joaquin