996 supplemental oil cooler

FSI is building motor for my '03 996 that will be used toprimarily to drive back and forth to, and participate in, DE events in Florida (Sebring, HMS. PBIR, Daytona), plus additional miles between events to keep seals from drying out, etc. Gets very hot down here obviously. I've read Jake and LN's articles on lubrication and the actual (high) oil temps they are seeing on M96s on track in high ambient conditions. I'd like to add a supplemental oil cooler. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to locate one given the tight confines of a 996? Also what suppliers you would recommend. I tried searching the threads and don't see anything and haven't had any luck on the I'net. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

LNE is developing one however I'm not sure if it is a real product yet. Look on ln engineering's website for more information, someone has done it already and they sold or sell on external cooler adapter.

Thanks for the response. I talked to Charles about his product, bought it and had it shipped to FSI. I don't believe it is an supplemental oil cooler per se. It replaces the existing heat exchanger and is designed to facilitate plumbing an external oil cooler furnished by others. I think finding the external cooler itself and a source of cool air to flow through it remain the challenge. Thanks again.

I'd try to mount it above the motor where it would get cool air flow from the rear deck spoiler. You may have to make some ducting but the coolant lines would be relatively short. Another place may be next to the trans near the rear axle. Would require making ductwork in and out. If the pump is strong enough, an ideal place would be center front in the bumper cover but it would require long lines. This is generally reserved for true dry sump systems with a strong scavenge that will cool the oil before being returned to the tank.

BUMP. Anyone put one in? I too, am looking at, and wondering of the feasability of the same thing. What did you end up doing for location, 996C2? There really is no room on top of the rear of the engine under the deck.

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Center radiator opening. It can even be placed in front of the existing radiator though protection from rocks/etc I think probably a good idea. 'course, you know this is going to bump the amount of oil the engine requires way up. I know a guy who runs a 914 with a 993 engine and this setup has extra oil coolers and the engine takes around 16 quarts of oil. Oh, forgot to mention at least one other thing: You need to consider fitting a t-stat in the oil line to the extra cooler to prevent the oil from being overly cooled when the engine is warming up. You do not want to have the existing/stock oil/water heat exchanger trying to bring some heat to the oil and while this add on oil cooler cools the oil. Sincerely, Macster.

I was looking at replacing the stock coolant/oil cooler with the adapter for just oil cooling. I don't see the thermodynmaic reason for cooling 240�F oil with 200�F coolant, when both systems would benefit from reduced heat load.

Perry, My attempts to find a suitable location have been unsuccessful. LN is marketing an adapter for lines to and from an external cooler and recommend a couple 3rd party fan powered coolers but don't offer any info on where the coolers can be mounted. One local indy is suggesting installing an oil cooler in place of my center radiator that I added a few months ago. I haven't seen any tangible effect from the center radiator but have major reservations about installing an oil cooler at the front of the car. There's the increased oil volume Macster mentioned but I'm even more concerned about increasing the potential for oil starvation during track events. Wish I had more to offer.

Off topic ... But 996c2, Where did you get your front bumper? Its looks sick. I would like to get some thing like that

Yes, that is exactly right. Finding a cooler and the correct Aeroquip AN lines is the easy part, it's a location with any airflow when the car is moving, yet protected fromimpact damage that is the key. The front rad location is not good from both an impact standpoint, and distance/starvation unless an auxiliary pump was used, which would be another point of failure. Too far to expect the stock pump to push oil, plus the damage factor, though a suitable screen could be designed. That is disappointing that LNE doesn't offer any location examples that would be required to use their product. IIRC, I have a nice Mocal 18 row oil cooler and full set of AN fittings and SS lines that I had used when I added it to my 944 many years back, and removed when I sold the car. It had a nice effect on oil temp, but of course did not replace an existing cooler, it was used with an external oil filter and filter replacement adapter. It wouldn't take much air flow to cool better than the stock coolant one.

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That's contrary to what studies of engine wear vs. temperature have found. Studies have shown engine wear goes up as oil/coolant temperature drop. Get much below 200F and wear rates climb. As long as the stock cooling system is in good shape -- and often they are not -- these cars are quite capable of remaining cool even when pushed hard in high temps. (I have at several different times driven my Boxster in such a way, in high ambient temps, to see the coolant temp climb to 226F. While that is hot, that is as hot as it got. There was no harm done so while this is hot it is clearly not too hot.) About the only change that makes any sense would be to add additional radiator capacity. This works to keep coolant temps down which lowers oil temps as well. This is what Porsche does. (Well,that and in newer models it improves the car's aerodynamics to increase increase cooling efficiency while often keeping the drag low) and along with this change the radiator fans to perhaps provide more fan speeds, or even variable fan speeds depending upon coolant temp/AC demands). But you do not want to go overboard. There's a possible problem with adding too much cooling. The engine can run 'cold' and that ain't good. Also, if there is too much cooling capacity, this can lower the coolant temp to the point this can cause the t-stat to close. Then as the heat rises the t-stat opens. This can subject the engine to larger swings in temperature it would get if left alone. This can work to over time cause, for example, head gasket leaks as the heads/blocks grow and shrink at different rates as the coolant temp drops/climbs/drops over and over again. It could also lead to some kind of t-stat failure that could have the thing stick open, or close, or just stuck. Sincerely, Macster.

I sincerely doubt that it would be easy to get too much cooling with either coolant of oil on my 996, at least in Virginia. I never (very rarely) drive the car in temps below freezing. But I understand your point, thanks.

I wonder why they chose to add an additional radiator on the C4? ...to offset the airflow loss from the AWD diff?

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I actually just had one installed. My car has a TPC tubo which deletes the mufflers from the rear quarters and uses a single center muffler. I had the oil cooler installed inside the left rear where the muffler use to be. I only took the car out for brief drive with my mechanic this afternoon so I don't know how well it will work. I also installed a turbo rear bumper so the fan from the radiator blows the hot air out through the vent in the bumper. I'll be on the track next week so i'll have a chance to see how it affects temps.

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MadeinPorsce, I got my body kit from Fiberwerks in California. Ask for Karl (owner) at [phone removed] or Fiberwerks.com. He provided a qualty product at a very competitive price and excellent customer service to me. Cheers.

I went to several DE here in south florida (homestead and PBIR) and made decent times track and the water temps and oil pressure stayed very well in check Why do you think the oil temp is going up ? do you have an oil temp gauge showing you so ? I wish there was one on my car, interested in info on that one 996C2... why did you go with the 3.8 ? I mean did you do the engine work because of high mileage on your car or elective work ? 3.8 must be nice but cost must be close to gt3 price

Philoo, I typed out a detailed response that then vanished before I could hit send. I'm not very good at this apparently. Will try again later.

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Hi! Do you have an update on this? Thanks!

Another option is the AC condenser delete on the drivers side, Then you could put a decent sized Setrab cooler in there... Or get a custom made to fit the center grill and run good radiators in the outboard holes. You'll need less radiator, with more oil cooler. Always use a thermostat on the cooler, or your engine temps will oscillate too much.

oil pump is not going to like such a long run to the cooler.

Too bad the scavenger pumps cant be tapped for a separate circuit. I often wonder how many evils in the 996 could be solved by taking it full dry sump.. Especially if you've already taken the mufflers and could use the old position for a tank.

Honestly I'm not sure oil temps are the issue. With a 997S heat exchanger, a third radiator, and a low temp thermostat, you shouldn't see much above 240 degrees of oil temp. If you run a good oil like driven xp9, that should be well within the acceptable range. Later model caymans see 270+ and c5 z06s see over 300 degrees, so 240 isn't really a huge deal. I understand that most oil temp sensors are in the head and may read lower than at the bearings, but still, these temps are not outrageous.

Z06's have their own cooling problems, both in the engine and the transmission until the "motorsports" cooling package is added.. I've towed several back to the pits with broken engines and transmissions due to baked oil.. a 45 minute road course session at about 100 degrees will do it.. Oh and bumping the HP north of 700 doesn't help..

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Having spoken to Lake about this, 225F is the ideal temperature, but anything up to 240F is not an issue. I'm not concerned about the oil but rather what it's doing to the internal engine components. We've seen oil temperatures over 300F on a GT4 Clubsport and stock 987.2/981 3.4s will run 270-280F on an 80F day. That's way too hot. If you want to put a larger oil to water cooler and feel comfortable making your own brackets, we sell a universal kit that uses a Cayenne Turbo oil cooler. I had a Spec Cayamn guy that had out of control oil temperatures install one and it fixed his high oil temps: https://lnengineering.com/products/b...anger-kit.html