I don't like the plastic oil pan on my GTS

 

Several years ago when I learned about the marvel that is Jake Raby his posts were so insightful, but buried in with everyone else's, uh, comments, that I used the RL function to find and read every post by Jake Raby. With all due deference to the OP, I think a more accurate reading of Raby is that the bore scoring he's talking about happens in cold weather so soon after startup that warm-up is irrelevant. Warm-up being driving the first several minutes, or longer. Bore scoring being wear that happens in the first few SECONDS, before the car is even driven. Hence, how you drive or warm the car up is, as far as this particular failure mode goes, irrelevant. The damage is either done, or not done, before you can even get out of the driveway.

Go ahead, read through his posts. There's one where he talks about testing a car with scores (hundreds?) of rapid restarts in zero degree weather with fans blowing, starting and shutting it down after just a few seconds, over and over again. He's not testing warm-up. He's testing start-up. Because that's when the damage happens.

Spend even a little time learning about Jake, you will quickly come to understand the man is a perfectionist with an incredibly idealized vision of how things should be. Porsche is perfectly happy with a failure rate of some small percentage. Most everyone else is excited to buy a car with an engine a little more solid than average. Jake is barely comfortable with a rate of zero. Well, unlike Porsche, et al, the failures come out of his pocket. His personal pocket. The man is so behind his work he even stood behind one that was way, way, WAY out of warranty and sold on BAT with problems posted on BAT and he STILL built the guy who bought it a new one for virtually nothing.

In other words, by any normal real world standard this engine is a rock solid pinnacle of high-performance engine production. To Jake its just another imperfect baseline.

 

Thanks for the reply, Chuck- yes, I have read a lot of Jake's posts, and agree with your perspective of his unwavering standards of perfection. Also agree that the 9A1 by many measures is a bullet-proof platform by and large! On the warm-up procedure thing, though, I think there are various schools of thought on the impact on bore score or maybe it's only the d chunking phenomenon that occurs in those rare cases. The below is an excerpt from the thread I posted further up that was started by Baz, (as you likely know, the UK version of Jake)- that offered his read on the factors impacting owners who want to avoid catastrophic engine failure due to the shape change over time that occurs to cylinders in cars that aren't allowed to reach stable temperature between piston and cylinder before being driven hard. Doesn't sound like a cold-start-and-damage-is-done (only) issue:

Again, I agree with you that this issue with 9A1 is of rare occurrence- and the 9A1 is a winner by most standards of quality and durability. I'm just looking for clues that the 9A2 was perhaps further improved in this area.

 

So in other words this engine is rock solid unless you live in Canada.

 

I tracked a 99 996 (big mistake) for a couple years and read probably every word Jake Raby posted on Rennlist. I would say the above is a pretty accurate summation of where the man is coming from. As much as my experience with the 9A1 motors in 3 different cars since then tells me they are bulletproof I still send my oil to Blackstone, a permanent paranoia leftover from those days!

 

Just wild speculation here, but maybe Jake is concerned about the stop start function and bore scoring Or some other lubrication failure

 

I always thought the break-in process is a bit of a joke. I properly warm up my T, which to be exact = 194 - 200F oil temperature at least, do not exceed 3k, maybe 3.5k RPM and do not switch on Sport or Sport+ (because it prevents quick and proper warm-up when cold) until after warm-up....then proceed to enjoy the car as intended while avoiding redline for the first few hundred miles. I still haven't touched redline on my T but to be honest haven't felt the need to as that's not really the "fun part" of the 9A2 engine. I have zero worry that the engine will have any issues.

 

If you're trying to greatly diminish the resale value of your cars, by making these proclamations, you're on the right path!!!

 

I somehow doubt this is going to affect his resale value at all lol

 

 

 

Don't mind him, he drives a PDK...

 

Ha ha! I have never once thought about selling it. Such a strange concept that I don't even know how to answer it.

Nah.....both are manuals.

 

I know, I was referring to Bemo's ride...

 

Got it. LOL.