Last week I left western Oklahoma in 95+ heat and headed to Colorado to visit friends for the weekend. It was just as hot in the sunlight there, though cooler in the shade. Then cloudy and briefly rainy for a couple of days. Very nice.


This photo is just over Raton Pass where on the last stretch of the pass my head temp finally got to 375 and I shifted to 4th. Regardless of OAT the heads run right around 325.

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Here I am on the return trip stopping off at the Canadian River north of Amarillo. The water is solid red but nice and cool when I lay down in the river for 20 minutes. I had tissue stuffed in my ears most of the way and the hot winds pounded me with both windows open...the usual for 914's, right?


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What was most interesting was my oil temps. Last summer I used Quaker State Rely oil. This last change I switched to Royal Purple HPS. Both have higher zink, the QS is $15/5 qts, the RP HPS about $45/5qts. QS and standard RP are both available at WalMart but the HPS RP has to be ordered from a FLAPS.

In last year's summer heat my oil temps were around 250. On this trip the oil temps were 215 the whole trip. Like Jake and others tell us, different oils give us different temps.

Very interesting. So for any armchair engineers out there, this oil temp range has to come from one of two sources: either the synthetic reduces friction better and therefor less heat or the engine heat is dissipated better by the synthetic. Any opinions?


BTW, 1628 miles, 65-75 MPH (well, okay,. a few stretches @90 mph ) , 45.21 gallons regular/85 octane gas, 36 mpg average.

Nice pics, very nice car.

Do you monitor all cyls or just #3?

35mpg, very impressive, especially on 85...or is it 87? All the 85 here is for flex fuel vehicles.

Around here we have 87 in pure gas, 5% and 10% ethanol. 85 when I gassed up in TX and CO and I never saw any pure gas.

What is your motor config and induction type?

[quote name='914_teener' date='Jul 17 2015, 05:16 PM' post='2211701']
What is your motor config and induction type?
[/quot

This is a '76 with retro bumpers. I rebuilt the stock 2.0L, HAM rebuilt the heads, decked the case, and I used a Raby 9550 cam kit, stock FI, 32k miles now. Stock Heat -exchangers with aftermarket muffler. I keep thinking I'd like to switch to early exhaust and stock muffler but I'm scared to take it off for fear of stripping out a stud...I just need to do it!

I had to buy a new crank and decided to get a counterweighted crank (Rimco). I have read that the c-weights are for reduced wear at RPM's above 3000. I planned on lots of highway miles instead of Xcross but I hoped it would be smoother cruising. Its been awhile since I drove the 1.7 that is now up on jackstands but I THINK its smoother than I remember the 1.7. Any comments?

I had to wrap a grease rag around my left arm to keep from making the sunburn worse! Needless to say my wife wasn't interested in coming on this trip. But it was such a gas hearing and feeling that engine run hour after hour.

This is a kinda long very old story so hold onto your hats.

Once upon a time, back in the early 1980s, I was running a 1975 914 1.8 on the street and at DEs at Watkins Glen. Castrol 30Weight was my oil of choice at that time. I put in a 911 oil pressure/temp gage and on the street at any kind of RPM above idle, the oil temp would be about mid range and the oil pressure would be slightly above mid range. I did some DEs with this and regardless of the ambient temperature, the temp/press didn't get much above or below half. At idle when warm, the press would drop quite a bit but still be plenty safe.

About this time Porsche started racing their Indy car which was sponsored by Quaker State so I switched to Quaker State (forget the weight) and it worked well on the street. I ran a DE and had an interesting experience. The first 3 laps or so the temp/press was right where it always was, about mid range. After a few more laps, I noticed that the temperature was up a bit and the pressure was down a bit. Both well within the safe range. That's curious. A few more laps and the temp was up a bit more, the press down a bit more. Still plenty safe but now I'm keeping an eye on it. The checkerd flag comes out and I'm crusing around on the cool off lap. Pull into pit lane and there is a line of cars almost stopped. I shove in the clutch, the engine goes to idle and the pressure starts bouncing off zero and the oil pressure light is flickering. A blip of the throttle brings the pressure up enough to get the light out and bring the pressure gage up a little. I pulled into my spot in the paddock and started checking things over. No oil leaks, no oil on the back bumper. Pull the dip stick and the oil level is right up full but there is this white stuff all over the top of the dipstick. Never saw that on the street. Pull the oil filler cap and the same white stuff is all over the bottom of the cap. Whats going on?

A couple hours later and its time to go out again. The car starts OK and the temp/press is right where its supposed to be. Run the next session and the same thing happened. Pack up, go home, change oil & filter back to Castrol 30W, go back to the track and run all the next day with perfect temp/press. Goodbye Quaker State.

Several years later, I was at a tech session where the featured speaker was a guy who was a crew chief on a 962. They got sponsorship from "a Pennsylvania oil company". He would say who but Quaker State and Pennzoil were both sponsoring 962s at the time. They started using the sponsors oil and started blowing engines. How they fixed the problem was to use the sponsors oil in their street cars, trucks & lawnmowers, fill the empty bottles with Mobil 1 50W and go to the track. No more blown engines.

Ever since I have only run Mobil 1 50W in all of my Porsches. Never had any oil related problems, never any elevated temperatures regardless of ambient temperatures.

My head temps are also around 325 degrees. Downshifting to fourth when they get hot is a good idea. For what it's worth, I have used Mobil 1 15W50 in my car for the last 10 years. Oil temp is usually 180. Coming home from the G&R on a 90 degree day, climbing some fairly steep hills, max temp was 220. I also use an aux oil cooler. Instead of tissue in your ears, get some foam earplugs. I've used these for over 40 years in airplanes and my 914. Here's another one for the FWIW column. In my 3.2 car, with the roof on and the windows up (winter time), I got 26 mpg. With the roof off and windows rolled down, I got 23 mpg. YMMV The rear window causes lots of aerodynamic with the other windows down. Except for the laying in the river part, that looked like a pleasant drive.