chizi

What Octane level fuel are you guys running?

sk0t

Porsche Canadian

I have 3000 miles on my 991 car and get smoke every time I start > a few days rest. Enough to draw stares.

Also - burning a liter of oil on one track day.

Jimmy-D

I can not mention about how much oil burning at track day but after 3000 miles I am surprised that at every start up you are seeing this much smoke.

If it is occasionally then I would say okay but if at every start up it is significant I would have it checked out. I have had several Porsches and they all smoked a little. After a few thousand miles it would only be occasionally but usually after a longer than normal standstill

Eronbo

I just picked up my new GT3 today. It is smoking an abnormal amount on start up! When they started it in the Porsche showroom it smoked...and they said it was normal. When it did the same thing this afternoon in my parking garage and then in my garage at home tonight I can tell you that it is not normal. I have had numerous Porsches and I race vintage sports cars. In my view there is a problem with the motor! I am not pleased! Are others having this problem?

Carrera GT

Zero smoke here.
The car's at about 1000 miles with nothing over 6500-6800 rpm and about 50-60% throttle with deference to the little blue light. I'm also careful to avoid lugging (low rpm, high gear) or singing (high rpm, low gear.) I noticed some faint blue "whiffs" one day two. I did about 200 miles per day for the first three days. I didn't think about smoke and didn't see any, but since this thread keeps getting posts, I've been eagle eyed (starting from outside the car and stepping to the rear to see if there's any smoke) but zero.
As others have noted, this was "common" (ish) on Mezgers in GT3 and RS cars, so I'm in no hurry to sound alarm. I can only suggest taking the long way home (the 200 mile route) and let the engine build up the heat and combustion chamber pressure to start to give it that first 2000 miles (I'm told it's meant to break-in) which I think is also in part to let PDK break-in.
I tend to subscribe to the "they wouldn't risk failure" I think Mike_in_CA described -- if ever Porsche has delivered an engine that just won't break, I think it's this GT3 "whoops ... take two" edition. I think you can drive this across death valley, six quarts down on oil, sitting in 3rd gear, 9000 rpm bouncing off the rev-limiter at 100 mph all the way north on I5, with the a/c on max and slaloming between the lines down the middle of the road with your foot resting on the brake pedal, stopping only to refuel and drop tire pressures to drive straight on track and compete in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and this car will not shift the temperature gauge.
Hmm. Maybe I took that too far ... you'd probably need new front tires during the race ...

Eronbo

Hmmm....will see! Also...are others hearing lots of noise from the transmission. Very noisy at low speeds. Sounds like some parts floating around in the gearbox!

Serge944

The irony of the matter is that an abnormal amount of smoke is perfectly "normal" for a GT3. I'm sad to say that if you can't deal with it, sell the car.

I don't like it either, and out of my three GT3 engines (a stock 996 3.6, modded 4.0, and stock 997.2 3.8), they have all ranged from zero smoke ever, light smoke every now and then, to heavy smoke every few starts, in that order. I tried to push for a new engine myself on my 997.2 GT3, because this "normal" compromise is not personally acceptable to me also. The dealer ran compression, leak down, all kinds of other tests and checks, and that car was technically sound, just like every other GT3 that smokes.

Unless you have a very long relationship with your dealer, i.e., you spend a lot of cash and have a 918 on order, I would not expect to get any warranty work. Any kind of warranty work for start-up smoke I would consider a huge favor.

dark knight

normal sounds they told me at factory, also smoke upon start not abnormal, sometimes a lot is fine

fun2k

My car used to smoke a lot before the engine replacement. In addition it if i remember correctly i had low engine oil level(yellow alert) at around 800km. Everyday it used to smoke on startup (from cold ofcoarse).

Now after new engine I have not seen any smoke at startup,done around 3000km and oil level at 1 bar since last 2500+ km.

sgroer

Were there flames accompanying the smoke and low oil in the original engine? :-)

Bford100

My 997-2 GT3 smoked about every 5th time I stated it up.

258 miles on this GT3 and it has smoked on start up once.

I have been told it is totally normal by dealer, and somewhere, a while ago on this discussion board, there was a technical analysis from the factory on why it does this...

The gearbox sound is also totally normal, I have driven 2 other 991 GT3's recently, same thing. I actually think it sounds really cool!

Jimmy-D

The GT3 is a noisy car and I would not have it any other way. I love to hear every thing going to work. It just sound so mechanical and real. As a matter of fact; I drove my car good this weekend and I just drove 120 miles in my Company car and it was so quiet it was driving me crazy. I can not believe I am saying this but I like cars that do not try to put me to sleep

Mike in CA

Rattle from this gearbox with it's single mass flywheel is completely normal. I most often start the car in my garage where excessive smoking would be obvious and hadn't noticed it for weeks. Then a couple of days ago I started and backed out into the driveway. Shut it down and started it up again 5 minutes later and got smoke. Nothing since including a bunch of starts on grid at the autox where I would definitely have attracted attention. FWIW, I'm still showing 3 bars on the oil gauge after 1700 miles so oil consumption has been minimal if at all.

scb997

I'm up to about 2200 miles since I picked it up on 8/22. I followed a "compromise" break-in. I kept it under 5k RPM for the first 500 miles and then upped my rev limit as miles accumulated. I didn't to a full throttle run to the redline until I was over 2000 miles...

The only time that I saw smoke, on start-up, was when I'd been moving the car in and out of the garage (to wax it and program the GDO controls). I presume that the stop/start and never letting is warm up helped a little oil get past the rings.

At 2200 miles, my oil level has dropped from the two-bar down "ideal" to three bars down.

Scott