Hi,

My other high-performance cars (Ruf and M5) recommend not to exceed 3,500-4,000 RPM until the engine warms up a bit. In fact the M5 has color-coded bar-lights to remind me of the shift points depending on engine tempertaure.

Regarding the Cayman I read the manual and searched this site and found no information on rev limitations and engine temp. The Cayman engine warms quickly, and by the time I cover the 0.6 miles to the freeway on-ramp, the engine temp. is already up a bit. However, that may not be the case on very cold winter mornings. I am curious as I have an uphill on-ramp so I need higher revs to merge safely.

Here's my question: Is is ok to rev the engine past 5,500 RPM on cold start? How do you folks drive when engine is cold?

Thanks for the education.

CP

No, it's really not a very good idea. Like your Ruf, the Cayman uses a pressurized oiling system - while not a true dry sump system, it does deliver oil where it's needed under pressure, and one of the places that's critical is the lifters, which actually "inflate" with oil through very small apertures. Cold, thick oil - not a good match for small passageways. I try to keep the RPMs below 4k for the first 7-10 minutes. The coolant temperature, which is what you see on the dash, gets up to temp quickly, but it's not a good idea to use that as a gauge for how warm the oil is - the oil takes longer to get to a good operating temperature.

brad

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21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

Brad,

Thanks a million.

CP

Great answer Brad! My "feeling" about driving the CS from a cold start is that the car isn't happy above @ 3500 RPM until it does warm up for @ 5 minutes. After 10 minutes it feels like it's ready to go. Sometimes I drive it down the hill to get it warmed up before I take it "up the hill". IMO it does make a big difference in how the car drives and the engines responds.