I did a deep dive into online material about 718 GT4 break in period, found a lot that said 500-1000 miles needed before going over 5k, but i've had now two people at the dealer tell me that these cars come ready to go and that no break-in period is necessary. "drive to your hearts desire" very confused.

 

 

"Best Oil" & "Break-in" are probably the most debated topics on various forums. Suggest do you own research and make your own decision.

 

I would ignore everything on the extremes for advice and do whatever gives you peace of mind in the middle.

My plan is wait until 500km before I drive it 'hardish', and probably wait until 1000km until I drive it like I stole it. <5000rpm until 1000 miles is pretty extreme imo. How do you even last that long without hearing the exhaust?

 

I took my 981 GT4 to the track with 180 miles on the clock. Ran it same as cars with multiple track events. At 22000 miles I never had an issue and the oil analysis was always good.

 

How was the oil consumption?

 

I don’t understand how you can take delivery of these cars and not drive them hard. I was at 7k on the first on ramp leaving the dealer. Enjoy them. You have a warranty and paid a lot of money for these machines.

 

I just followed the manual - well almost LOL. 4000 rpm until 3000 km’s, but I took it up to 5000 four to five times after 2000 km’s. I don’t see the hardship in following the instructions - get out there and drive it every day and throw in a couple long trips, and you’ll get through it quickly.

I agree with the other poster - do what makes you comfortable. Flooring it off the lot would not make me feel comfortable, YMMV.

 

The break-in period is more for all the other components, not so much the motor. The brake pads & rotors, the gears of the transmission, the wheel axles, etc. The motor is ran up close to redline from the factory, granted not under extreme load, but as long as you vary the RPM's and do some engine braking to help seat the rings, I do not think revving the motor out every now and then is an issue.

 

In first 200km's, brief periods of moderate to high loads, followed by low load to cool down. Oil service after. Done this approach on many cars and motorcycles. They have all consumed virtually no oil, however I haven't kept any of these vehicles for more than 30,000kms. With modern engines I really think it makes no difference. Also I'm uncertain how the LDS coatings affect things.

Do research and make up your own decision.

 

but this is for motorcycles so how applicable is it to P-cars?

 

FWIW I used the following break-in. It was posted on another thread and purportedly comes from the GT car head of development.

 

The manual says to not go over 4000 rpm until 2000 miles. It also says to not lug the engine and to not use cruise control so that you can vary the engine speeds and loads. I stuck to what the manual said. It was very hard keeping it under 4000 rpm for 2000 miles and on a few occasion, I went over 4000 rpm but never over 6000 rpm.

There are many opinions on this matter ranging from sticking to the manual to a T to using the increasing rpm at certain mileage increments to just flooring it out of the showroom and everything else in between. It's your car. Do what you're comfortable with.

I will say though that out of all of the cars I've owned over the years, I've never had one that had a break in schedule for 2000 miles. I think most are like 500 miles and I think I might have had one for 800 miles or even 1000 miles but 2000 miles was and is a lot in my opinion. Don't know what to make of it but I have to assume it's 2000 miles for a reason.

 

For my GT3, it’s 1500km (930 miles) under 7k rpm in Europe or 2,000 miles under 4K rpm in USA. What would be the reason for that?

 

I like this article - sticks to the manual with good reasons why: https://yel.pca.org/porsche-engine-break-in/

New Engine Break-in Conundrum

By: Ken Koop-The Yellowstone Region (Old Faithful Newsletter)Since I was a young boy, I have always wondered why it takes so long to break-in a new engine–especially those built by Porsche. Most people driving new cars also do not fully understand the real reason for the break-in period. Are you one of them? A good friend of mine just picked up his brand new 911 Turbo and complained about the break-in period taking so long (2,000 miles, not exceeding 4,000 RPM). We have talked about this issue many times over the past few years, always coming up with many scenarios of why such a long break-in period is required. However, we have never agreed on a reasonable answer. Well, you are about to find out the reason Porsche requires the break-in period it has today. The answer comes directly from the engineers at Porsche.

I was on a recent Porsche factory tour and was watching an engine being built and dyno tested. Each engine is built by a single person on a moving production line. Porsche feels that they can obtain better quality control with one person building an individual engine from start to finish. In addition, each engine builder can assemble every type of production engine that Porsche produces and every gasoline engine is still built at the Stuttgart factory. It takes 2-3 ½ hours to assemble each engine, depending on the type. Afterwards, the completed engines are either used in the cars produced at the Zuffenhausen factory or are boxed up and shipped to Leipzig (for the Cayenne and Panamera) or off to Finland (for the Boxster and Cayman).

Before all of the parts are assembled for a particular engine; the pistons, connecting rods and valves are individually weighed and grouped together using similar weights to optimize performance. They are put onto a cart that moves along the assembly line with each engine block. This cart contains every part required to assemble that particular engine which includes each washer, nut, bolt, bearing etc… As a result, if any part is left in the cart at the end of the assembly line, then—Houston, we have a problem! At the end of the assembly line, the engine is filled with Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil. Each engine is then dry run (without fuel), pressure tested and checked for leaks. Every car coming off the production line is also run on a rolling road dyno. This enables all cars and engines to be tested at highway speed before they leave the factory.

Some of the engines are also randomly selected to be tested on a dyno stand before they are installed into the car. The assembly plant has 5 dyno rooms located directly off the production line. The day I was on the tour, there were around 40 engines lined up on dollies. Some of these engines were in the process of being tested for quality control purposes. Once the engine is bolted onto the dyno, warm water is circulated throughout the engine to bring it up to temperature. The operator then starts the engine and checks for the correct pressures and temperature before the actual test begins. Engine speed is then increased in RPM steps to about 80% of its red line (the engine’s maximum RPM). The entire engine run takes around 30 minutes. Since each engine type (Turbo, GT3, Boxster or Carrera…) has a different red line, all of the data is recorded and analyzed after the test is completed.After the engine is turned off, the engine is again checked for seal leaks and its actual HP is compared to its advertised HP. To pass final inspection, the engine has to develop, at a minimum, 100% of what its advertised HP rating is. Also, the engine cannot produce more than 5% over that same advertised rating. If the engine falls out of those parameters, the engine is rejected and then torn down to determine why it did not deliver the anticipated HP.When the test was completed, a Porsche engineer came over to review the results. I couldn’t resist asking the question that I had been searching to find an answer to for all these years. I asked “why does Porsche feel it is safe for a new engine to run at nearly full throttle in the factory, while the customer must keep the engine speed to no more than 4,000 RPM for a 2,000 mile break-in period?” I thought that was a logical question and if I do say so myself-well stated! The engineer replied, “Herr Koop, you do not understand (that I already knew). When we do our engine test, the metals inside the engine never reach the temperatures they would when driven on the street since the test session is fairly short. In other words, the bearings, pistons and cylinders never get a chance to thermally expand to their maximum. Therefore, there is little wear on the moving components. But when you drive a car on the street, the engine parts expand considerably more because of the heat being generated from the engine running for an extended period of time. No matter how tight the tolerances are, there is always a slight amount of expansion in the material. The moving parts can wear quickly if exposed to excessive heat and not always in a uniform way. We also constantly vary the speed and allow the engine to run at both high and low RPM’s”.

“Porsche wants the engine to break-in slowly, which means it needs to maintain a lower operating temperature (below 4,000 RPM) and to allow all parts to adjust (wear-in) within their own thermal expansion parameters. This is also the reason why Porsche wants the owner to vary the RPM throughout the break-in period; therefore the engine doesn’t get use to one operating temperature range”.

“Porsche has been using Mobil 1 Oil since the early 90’s. With its superior lubricating properties, it takes many miles of driving (without getting the engine too hot) before the components actually seat (or break-in). Porsche’s own tests reveal that after 2,000 miles have been driven, all of the moving parts have had a chance to wear into their adjacent surfaces and then an increase in engine RPM is permissible.” I replied, “JA DAS SOUNDS GUT, when you explain it that way, it makes a lot of sense.” I thought to myself “You Dummkopf, why didn’t you think of that”.

The engineer commented that there were many other moving parts other than the engine that needed break-in as well. Wheel bearings, constant velocity joints, tires, brakes and transmission were just some of the other components that were mentioned.

So breaking it down into layman’s terminology, it all comes down to; higher RPM equates to more heat, which leads to greater expansion. For a new engine, that can mean uneven wear on certain parts if excessive heat is allowed to build up. In Porsche’s opinion, the thermal expansion of different parts and various materials need time to adjust to one another. Porsche’s time frame for that to occur is calculated to be 2,000 miles, with the heat restriction being 4,000 RPM. So simple; who woulda thunk.

Many experienced Porsche engine builders and experts on the Flat-6 engine state that the peak power of a Porsche engine is developed around the 20,000 mile mark. This coincides with the principle of what the Porsche engineer was telling me; “Break it in correctly and the engine will last longer and perform better”.

It only took me 45 years to find out the real answer to this puzzling question. After I returned home, I explained this to my friend. As for our ongoing debate, we now feel a solution to this riddle has finally been reached. Neither one of us had the answer to this complex question totally figured out, but we were on the right path! I am finally able to resolve another one of my life’s unanswered mysteries and now it’s been crossed off the list. I hope this helps explain one of your unanswered questions in the car world as well.