Low oil pressure when hot

[Filibuster]

Hi everybody

I was participating at a rally last weekend with my 997. Not a real one of course, but rather a fun/charity one organized from the Gstaad Yacht Club.
We had outside temperatures of up to 36°C and I was driving in a quite spirited manner up some mountain passes in the alps.

I was glad that I changed the coolant pipes (the ones going over the engine) earlier this year and I changed the coolant at the same time.
Also I fitted a 996 Turbo water pump at the same time. Also I had an oil change at that time with the same Motul 5W40 I have been using for the past 8 years.

The oil temperature rose to 130° and also the water temperature went above the damped 80° to around 100°.
Car was running smooth but coming to a halt, I got a low oil pressure warning on the dash together with the chime. I raised the idle rpm to 2'000 which solved the problem, but it kept coming back until the oil temperature cooled down to to 110°.
Foolishly I didn't think of putting on the heater....

There was not less oil in the engine (at least according to the digital readout) afterwards.
On the way back home (32° outside temperature, country roads and motorway) the temperatures where as normal and oil pressure was around 2 bar, iirc.

Have other occurred the same before? I hope it is only a matter of an oil that was simply not up to the task!
I want to change the oil asap, regardless I have only driven about 2k miles since the last oil change.

I am considering switching oil brands or even go for a 5w50.
Apparently Ravenol is a very good oil and the RUP 5w40 should be an upgrade to the Motul. The RRS would be a 5W50.

For reference: Stock 3.6 engine with ca. 120k miles on it and it uses virtually no oil at all.

[Panamax]

If you're going to keep doing that I'd be looking to install more oil cooling. It needs careful thinking because as your oil capacity increases so will your warm-up time, unless the supplementary oil cooler is thermostatically controlled.

[SlimJim16v]

That's too hot for your oil, obviously.
Try Millers 10w50 NT+ or Motul 300v 15w50 competition. If it's going to be a frequent thing they also have a 60w, if the 50w aren't up to it.

I do think the 60w might be too thick though.

Edited by SlimJim16v on Monday 11th August 17:37

[G-996]

I had a 996.2 Carrera, using Millers 10w50 NT did increase high temp oil pressure at low revs, I’d suggest trying that

[Filibuster]

Thanks for the responses! While I don‘t drive the types of roads on a regular basis, having more high temp reserves is a good thing.

Also, Porsche sells their own 5w50 classic oil now for the 9x6 cars, which have the same M96 engine. Not going for that obviously, but probably Ravenol. Millers is a faff to get on the continent.

10w50 is to extreme for the winters here in Switzerland and I don‘t fancy doing two oil changes p.a.