Best Oil for 987.1 Cayman S

With an oil change due in the next 1000km, I have been looking in to doing it myself. I daily the car year-round and live in northern New Zealand where the temperatures don't get close to 0C, even in winter. The owners manual says reccomends 3 oils for above -25C temperatures: SAE 0W-40, 5W-40, and 5W-50. The previous owner used 5W-50 oil, but I would like to make sure this is the best option. Of the 3 oils recomended, which should I use for my situation? Edit: Pricing and reword As for pricing 5W-40 is the lowest at $100 for 5L, both the SAE 0W-40 and 5W-40 are the same at $120 for 5L

Oil discussions can last forever,, however,, in a simple manner, any of these should work for you. Most folks around me simply use mobil 1 0w 40 because of the sticker on the car and it is easy to find and cheap at Walmart. Not sure whats readily available down there. If you want to get into oil composition, TBN, etc. you can find detailed info at bobistheoilguy.com.

Any A40 rated oil will work, but to fine tune the answer to your question, more info is needed about your driving style and the conditions of your use. Frequent short or long trips? RPM range you like when driving? Tracking or spirted driving?

For all the years I've owned 987.1 models, I've used 5W40, usually LiquiMoly or Motul . On the few occasions where I've used 0W40 ( Mobil 1 ) I find I have to add oil between changes, and also it seems like there is more valve train noise. If I was driving in cold winter conditions (below freezing) however I'd use the 0W40 as it would likely flow better on start-up.

Just my opinion but frequency is the game with oil as a consideration even more than whether it's Mobil one . I change it myself and I change it too frequently. Why? Becuase fresh oil is better than old oil on tensioners and more. I use Mobil 1 , it never goes past 3000 miles, I don't care if I'm throwing good product out, I can sleep fine with that being true and I have a durametric to reset the car, I like doing it so I'm good with my process. PS I use M1 Euro formula, with how often I change it Motul would be a waste of money but it's a great product, so is Liqui Molly.

Maybe I misinterpreted the OP but I didn't think it was about oil brand. It sounded like it was about viscosity. Whether to continue with the previous owner 5W50 or something else.

Motul 300 V 5W 50 for the street use. I believe its helps coat the tricky cylinders and piston skirts better than Mobil 1 . Runs smooth with no startup noise and no chain noise at high RPM's, I've seen many crankcases that are clean with the use of Motul so that's important as well. I change it at 3000 or so miles. Guys with 9A1 motors need to look at other issues relating to oil smog clogging up their intake valves, so they need motor oil that does not release oil smoke into the crankcase. The M97 engine cleans the intake valve with injected air/gas, so no worries there. I believe this thread is about the M97 engine use and finding the right viscosity to meet your seasons needs. Owners of M97 engined cars need to be aware of the oil viscosity thinning effects when used in hot climates. So I would recommend adding a 996 oil/water heat exchanger to your motor in place of the punny Porsche oil cooler. If you are running an IDP GT3 Plenum manifold you may be able to use a 997 oil cooler, which is best. We have got to figure out what is working best for our 17 year old motors, (mine is a 2007 engine). Keeping the oil cooler is best, except in cold climates where the idea is to run the motor long enough to boil off the collected water in the oil if you let the car sit. So, it becomes a science project, the longer we own these cars with this motor. Thank you Porsche for developing the Lokasil cylinder coatings and piston skirts thin coatings as well as well as using the same pistons on the left and right banks.

Frequent trips to and from work/school (<15 min), and long trips (2-3 hours) on weekends. I'll often floor it coming around a corner or after a speed bump but otherwise stay at a low rpm in longer straights. I've never tracked the car but I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility.

I'm no oil expert so I'll ask for opinions: if an engine has been using a viscosity at the heavier end of the scale (5W50) for most of its life, is it wise to now switch to a thinner oil? My thinking is that the tolerance change due to inevitable wear to piston rings could allow thinner (0W40 or 5W40) to seep. Not sure if it would matter to other lubricated parts such as bearings.

Since I don't live there, I really don't know how the car is used. If its run during hot weather hard, then yes keep the 5W- 50 but change to Motul products and add the 996 oil cooler vs the tiny Cayman one. Motul seems to work better on the Porsche cylinders and especially the piston skirts.

I'll run one experiment in reverse on the Ford, this is how: The Costco oil is 5 / 30 all synthetic. That weeps ever so slightly small drip now and then. I'm going back to 5/ 20 but the factory oil is a synthetic blend, part regular oil Going by viscosity only, the 5 / 20 should leak too but maybe there's a reason Ol' Ford did the "partial blend" with regular oil. I'll report back. I have one more complete oil change in stock all synthetic, but I'll buy the Ford oil at Wallymart and see what happens, it never dripped with the partial stuff and like I said it's an infinitesimal amount.

I would follow the previous owners decision as you live in the high hot New Zealand area and drive the car every day.

It's to see what it does to leaking Apex, which relates to R Schwerer's query of going back and forth between blends and viscosities and whether it changes the properties of leaking. Does going to a full synthetic and back to the factory partial blend change a drip, as both use crankcases it relates. Perhaps you could calm yourself, the test mule of more information need not be a Porsche, knowledge is power my friend. It's not exactly his query but it's information that may pertain to Porsche cars as well. The truck was not designed to use full synthetic, let's see what happens. If you don't want to know I'll respect that as well.

TheTheTheTheo- If you know the previous owner well, I would ask him his opinion as he used the car for 16 years without any issues. That oil fits into the Porsche oil recommendations for the 987.1 S.

Are there any more in depth 'studies' into Motul vs Mobil 1 ? Or somewhere thats tested this so that I can look into that more.

Great question, I wish that I had that study in my back pocket. But no. Just word of mouth from various race shops, one being Cantrell Motor Sports in Bellevue, Wash and Slakker Racing Development, who rebuilds these engines. They also recommend XP9 for our M-97 engines. The problem with XP9 is its short lived, like 600 miles then should be changed. Motul says 3000 street miles and take away 500 per race day with the use of Motul 300 V Competition 5W-50 . This stuff is expensive, but its peanuts compared to a rebuild of the cylinders and pistons due to bore scoring and rod bearing scaring. If you do track your car, I would highly recommend a LN deep sump or Hartech sump ordered through Slakker Racing Development, to keep the engine oil contained around the oil pickup, rather than going up the sump walls and having a air ingestion problem. I noticed you have some engine ticking noise? Well Motul will help this problem. I used Mobil 1 5W 50 for a couple of years. What I noticed was the oil life was about 3000 miles by the noise of the chains and lifters. Once I went above that mileage the engine just got louder. So, I talked to my shop and others mentioning going to Motul . Thumbs up by almost all. So, 3 years ago I switched and never looked back. The engine is quit at startup, when driven hard and then stopped at a traffic light no tapping or clicking noises. The down side is the cost, but looking at $27,000 usd for a rebuild to a 4.1 liter race motor, I will keep paying for the oil. The problem is I will get very little return for this new motor when selling the car, so I keep paying for the 3.4 liter motor for the oil it uses. There is another graph on Hartach oil pressure that looks very similar to the LN, but is over 10% better ER 80. I just could not find it tonight. If you like graphs, let me know and I will find it again.