911sanantone

Chuck, thanks for a very informative reply. While you will not find me heading to the track any time soon, based on responses such as yours, I have come to the rational conclusion that I do not have to bannish any one from the family. I will check out the thread that you attached.
Thanks again to you and others for the info.

j080808

Drove my leased 991 home from the dealer and was at the track a few weeks later. How did you know?

Might I buy it at lease termination? Depends on the resale vs. residual values at the time.

fast1

And so you just kind of have to figure it out for yourself. But first, relax. In spite of all the solid reasons why an engine will actually develop more power and run longer if given lots of full throttle during the first few hours of operation, the fact remains very few people actually do this- and yet their cars run fine for years. A much bigger factor in longevity comes down to simple stuff like changing oil and filters. If you want to "do it all" then you should warm it up and run it hard as possible on the track the first several hours. But its not like you're gonna own a dog that dies next year if you don't. You will however miss out on an extra 5%+ more horsepower- and an awful lot of fun - for no good reason.

I couldn't agree more. Unfortuately all I have to offer is the anecdotal experiences of myself and my friends, an infinitesimal subset of Porsche owners, but those experiences garnered over many years are in concert with your views.

You do list something which I hope doesn't get overlooked: the importance of regular oil and oil filter changes. One of the first things that an informed used car buyer will request is a record of oil and filter changes. Oil changes performed at the recommended interval or even earlier are far more important to a car's longevity than exceeding some arbitrary RPM level during break-in.

chuck911

It often happens in the heat of debate that we focus so much we lose perspective. Even if the grandest claims of the racer set are believed we're still about at most 20-40 HP, huge in racing but equivalent to maybe a couple thousand feet of elevation change, ie not all that noticeable on the street, and burning maybe an extra quart of oil or needing engine work at 150k miles instead of 200k miles. In other words still within the range of what someone might be expected to obtain following no special 'break-in' procedure at all. One difference does stand out for certain though, and that is the comments and feelings having to do with the costs of denial- not denial of the facts of engine mechanics but the denial of the pleasure of driving the car the way we all know it is intended to be used. The only thing longer than the break-in threads would be if we strung together all the comments from people obviously eager to get it done with so they can enjoy the car! But even in that case I suppose those people have the "enjoyment" of following what they think of as a necessary and important element of Porsche ownership. (But boy do they ever love to brag about their suffering!)

Also, for the one in a million who persevere and actually read up on the subject, there are a lot of little complicating details. There are for example a whole slew of different cylinder lining materials such a Nikasil that are in fine detail each one a little different than another in terms hardness, porosity, profile, etc. Overall nowhere near enough to cast doubt on the general principle, but probably enough to make one wonder about the magnitude of likely outcomes with different initial run-in procedures.

But an even bigger concern is oil. Over and over again, in both articles like the one linked to above, as well as conversations with experienced mechanics, the importance of using good old-fashioned dinasaur oil and avoiding synthetics keeps coming up. The reason always cited is that synthetics are too good at lubricating, and prevent some of the necessary ring/cylinder wall mating. The most experienced racer/builder I know is very adamant about this. And so I have no doubt. But equally significant, it seems to me, is the fact that everyone- but everyone!- agrees that poor ring seal can result in glazing due to varnish build-up. Well, synthetics such as Mobil-1 are incredibly resistant to varnish build-up.

So it seems to me that not only is Porsche making things difficult with their unfounded owners manual advice, they're making it darn near impossible to do the job right by delivering their cars filled with Mobil-1. The new owner now has to drain all that brand new oil and replace it with conventional oil before ever driving the car. And really, because only about 70% of the oil is really changed, the other 30% remaining in sumps, lines, radiators, to do it right will need to flush and change it twice- at both ends- first to get to fully mineral then again to get back to fully synthetic! Obviously nobody but nobody is going to do this. And they get away with it, because Porsche delivers all their cars with synthetic oil that won't glaze cylinders even of the cars with owners determined enough to follow a factory procedure that would otherwise doom the car to a life of low power and high oil consumption!

Having a hard time here thinking of something with greater irony....

fast1

So it seems to me that not only is Porsche making things difficult with their unfounded owners manual advice, they're making it darn near impossible to do the job right by delivering their cars filled with Mobil-1. The new owner now has to drain all that brand new oil and replace it with conventional oil before ever driving the car. And really, because only about 70% of the oil is really changed, the other 30% remaining in sumps, lines, radiators, to do it right will need to flush and change it twice- at both ends- first to get to fully mineral then again to get back to fully synthetic! Obviously nobody but nobody is going to do this. And they get away with it, because Porsche delivers all their cars with synthetic oil that won't glaze cylinders even of the cars with owners determined enough to follow a factory procedure that would otherwise doom the car to a life of low power and high oil consumption!

I have no expertise on the subjest as to whether or not synthetic oil is suitable for break-in, but I do have a concern. Suppose that your engine fails during break-in, after you have removed the Porsche recommended synthetic oil. Is that grounds for voiding a warranty? Granted that it's extraordinarily unlikey to happen, but it's still a risk, and one that I wouldn't be willing to take for a questionable advantage.

chuck911

Who knows. More to the point, who would know? I would think anyone so motivated to swap oil in the first place would also be smart and motivated enough to swap back in the event of such an astronomically unlikely event.

Then again, something like this DID happen recently, and to someone right here on RL. However since they were constantly commenting about how very careful they were to follow the factory break-in .....

And no I am not saying or even implying that following the factory's unfounded procedure had anything to do with it....