TomTarzian

Taking our new GT4 out for first drive tomorrow. The break-in advice in the owner's manual seems to be to keep revs below 4,000 for the first 2,000 miles. That seems a long time before increasing revs. Thoughts?

God bless,
TT

ltfl09

No I didn't - I only kept revs below 5k for the first 400-500 miles then I redlined it. Dealer told me to redline it right away but, I'd rather not do that. I think about 400 to 500 miles is plenty to get the system lubricated

NoobPorscheNoob

I found this article in informative regarding break-in

https://yel.pca.org/porsche-engine-break-in/

RichSouleRacing

This is what my wife (and I when she makes me drive) are doing with her GT4. Much more reasonable than 2000 miles under 4000 RPM, and it came from an engineer at Porsche from what I understand.

Rennolazine

Im just driving it. My saving grace is that i cant go on the highway because I dont have ppf till next week. I typically dont boot it to redline in first gear and dont lug the engine in high gears until i feel the car loosening up a bit. Doesnt take long to feel the components get more elastic. Maybe 500 miles. Also the oil warms up fast in this car so i keep the revs under 3500 until 200+F. Get it nice and warm then I just drive the car. Lots of variation in gears lots of downshifts with long engine breaking decels no throttle. Im a fan of getting stress on the engine in both directions.The car seems happy, hasnt burned a drop of oil in 300 miles.

Manoverpdk

At delivery My SA told me to “drive it like you stole it”. I’ve kept it below 5000 thus far at 1000 miles. Looking to open up now.
Can anyone comment what is considered a negative on the DME report regarding revving and what not to do?
I’m not clear on that whole issue.

Rennolazine

Stage 1 overrevs is hitting the limiter. This is normal. Then stage 2 starts to get over 8000 rpm in defined rpm increments. Stage 3-6 you can lose your powertrain warranty. Stage 4 you definitely start worrying about the engine being damaged.

Outlaw 06

This is an interesting topic. There really are two schools of thought on this. One is to essentially break in the engine at lower RPMs and the other is to break it in at higher RPMs. There's really no consensus. Race motors are dynoed at high RPM/load immediately after they're built. Of course, no engine will last for very long if it isn't built right, especially a race engine. I try my best to stick to the manufacturer's guidelines, but I'm not going to anxiously putter around town staring at my tachometer either.

Believe it or not, there are people out there who strive to always keep their Porsche engines below 5,000 RPM. I ran across a couple of them when selling my 981 Cayman last year. I mentioned how the 2.7 liter NA engine produces its best power from about 4,500 to 7,000 RPM, and how well the car performs in that rev range, and by their reaction you would have thought that I’d just admitted to abusing the car... Go figure.

2seats

I think the funniest thing ever is when you see something like this at the Porsche dealership

2021 GT4 for sale
2000 miles
“executive demo”

boss2k

where did you get this from ?

sobiloff

This is from Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche's GT car group, and based on comments he made in an interview when asked about how they break-in new cars at Weissach. https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/9022...l#post12732648

It's also consistent with the advice my tribologist gives regarding break-in: create high loads at low(er) RPMs to get the rings to seat well, so floor it in a high gear and then coast back down, repeatedly. Coasting lets the oil clean-out any generated debris from the ring area. Don't go to redline during the first 1,000 miles to prevent hotspots from forming on the high-speed engine components (mainly camshafts). By 1,000 miles they'll be nicely burnished-in and provide a long life.

ronbauer

I too am following the above break-in per Andreas Prueninger. Should be complete by this weekend. It's been fun going up each 500 rpms. Beware though, the torque at the bottom feels awesome until you start experiencing the higher revs. Then the bottom doesn't feel so good.... ;-) I kid, it still has nice torque at the bottom, but once you start feeling what the car can really do, you want to spend more time up there!

Ron

Archimedes

What does your temp gauge say?

OP, there's a recent thread that beat this to death, with all the pros and cons debated. If you can find that, you'll have more opinions than you could ever want.

Larry Cable

personally I just wait until the engine is at temp (oil, water) and drive it normally...

lovetoturn

Sobiloff said it perfectly above. Gradual break-in and WOT at low rpms with coast down will create for a better longer lasting motor.

I created that table so it could be printed and a note sized card could be placed in my center console to remind me at what rpm to top out at on any given day. You can drag and drop it to your desktop and then print the appropriate sized document for your in car usage.

Once above 500 miles, I don't think a couple of bursts up to 8000 rpms on a warm motor will hurt anything. It has already been there before during the factory test of the motor.

Thank you AP for a sensible break-in recommendation for us enthusiast. We know that Porsche's official recommendation has to be much more conservative for the masses, but not necessarily for us informed Rennlisters.