mjwolsky

I have read many posts that say 930 engines will last a long time as long as they aren't abused. But then many others say that these are very stong engines and these cars are meant to be driven hard. Where is the line between the two? Just curious about what some of you consider to be abusive driving that will significantly shorten the life of a 930 engine or on the flip side, how hard/often can you push it and not expect to harm anything? Thanks!

Yargk

In my book:

driving hard = full throttle to redline or close to redline

abuse = past redline, driving hard when cold, too much boost, not letting it cool down before shutoff, shifting too fast for the tranny, hard launches

Vifa

Abuse = Driving above 4500 rpm when engine is cold. (964 Turbo, guessing it will be the same for a 930)

Many people (mostly Ferrari folks I believe) loves to start their engine and then revs up the engine = abuse.


A Porsche engine loves high revs, but if you drive high revs all the rime you might shorten its life.

mjwolsky

How long do you usually let the car idle before turning it off? Is is necessary to do this if you just took an easy drive and didn't use any boost?

gaijin

I normally allow about a two minute cool-down period even if I drove at moderate engine load. When I drive with full boost and extended engine load, I will do about a five minute "driving" cool down followed by my customary two minute no engine load cool down.

Addressing the high revs some owners speak of. Air cooled engines uses a combination of forced air (while the vehicle is in motion) and engine oil to cool. Hence, driving an air cooled car would reguire more RPM to better circulate the engine oil for cooling.

I agree that these motors requires an easy throttle to properly warm up. I usually keep to around 3K RPM until my motor gets to operating temp.

Don't power shift. Although the 930 4-speed tranny are robust, they are not designed for power shifting. These are open road automobiles and not signal-light-to-signal light sprint racers. If you must, ease into first moderately, upshift at around 3500K to second and plant the middle pedal. Just make sure you have plenty of road ahead and around you.

Tito911

My 0.02 from my experience,

There's not enough road anywhere period to run a 930/911turbo at full tilt every day every time, this engines if build properly are very very strong, in my application as an example we have drag racing the car for years now besides the weak points, things like axles and clutch the engine has withstand over 150 1/4 mile passes all of them at 29-35 pnds of boost not one single incident of engine fatigue or failure although the engine is fully build. to that add another 100+dyno runs.

On the street at 18 pnds of boost is enough to put a smile in anyones face,

I think a few key factors are;
1- Properly build the engine
2- Frequent oil changes
3-Constant monitoring of engine, leaks, compression etc
4-Turbo cool down period
5-Warm Oil period/cool down
6-Good fuel
7-Good fuel/Ign maps
8-Over-Rev= Disaster

So you can count me into the "Abusive " category.

aviation_infadel

I def understand these engines are built tough, but it seems almost every one that I've looked at had a rebuild well under 100K. Hard to tell if that's just nature of the engine, or the cars were abused. After seeing that the majority have been rebuilt I've become apprehensive about buying one.

Tito911

Very true, as an example 88 911 with the wear on the exhaust guides, other with broken studs or oil leaks BUT once you fix all of those little things you are good to go

Rusmurf

Maybe rebuilt because the car sat?

Guns951

The motors are rebuilt because boost is addictive and if you want more power you need to freshen the block, upgrade the studs, do head work etc. Most aren't just standard rebuilds, and if they are its usually to ensure everything is still good to go as these motors are kinda old. BUT they're strong as hell.

pete77930

Mine sees full throttle, redline, etc every time shes taken out. I don't abuse it, but I do use it the way a porsche turbo is supposed to be used. for the way that I drive and as much as I drive, I'll be happy with 30k miles out of the motor before it needs to be freshened again. I have 15k miles on a complete rebuild and we're re ringing her right now due to cracked rings. I do run more boost then most(1.2 bar)...except Guns951 and his 1.6 bar

BrianKeithSmith

I abuse mine... No Mercy on the poor thing , every time it rolls off the trailer...

Black_Hat

took Otto cycle theory in school
covered reciprocating mass weight / rpm and engine life prediction
an example here based on BMW motors:
http://www.metricmechanic.com/catalog/engine-life.php

87 930

My 930 motor has over 100k miles and I've only dropped the engine for oil leak repairs and clutches. Every time I drive it I take it to 5k rpm and never over 5500. Stay away from the rev limiter or you'll shorten your engine life. Don't ever "shock load" the vehicle (IE; dumping the clutch at rpm, speed shifting). Heed the excellent advise from Tito911 (I do) and the well-designed motor will last quite awhile.

mjwolsky

Pete77930 - I have read that they make rings out of different alloys or metals. Do you know of any that last longer or are stronger than others? Any tricks to making sure they seat propertly? I have a feeling I'm going to be doing the same thing very soon...she's smoking all the time. Probably cracked rings and maybe exhaust guides too.