911sanantone

There has been extensive back and forth regarding Porsche's break-in guidelines. I am trying to adhere to this and most importantly maintaining the rpm below 4200. I now have 200 miles on my 50th and a dear family member (experienced driver) asked if he could drive the car. He downshifted in error (engine was warm) prompting the RPM's to hit 5500 for several seconds then falling back below 4200.
I read that Porsche engineers advise the 4200 rpm number to keep engine heat lower during the break-in period. If that is the case, does a brief jump or 2 into higher rpms deviate from the intent of Porsche's guidelines or are the guidelines warning against driving with the rpm greater than 4200 for a prolonged period of time?

goofballdeluxe

Don't worry about it. These are merely guidelines. The car will be fine. You, on the other hand, may need a Scotch or two

Dyim

+1

And ask that family member to pay for the scotch!

spar10

these cars are meant to be driven. there's not a single 911 car i've owned that i've been able to restrain myself from doing exactly what these machines were designed to do - go fast and make me smile while doing it.

you're car will be fine... it's you i'm worried about.

chuck911

Really? Where?

Lemme guess: http://yel.pca.org/porsche-engine-break-in/

Key quote:

"Herr Koop, you do not understand, when we say RPM we mean heat! When we say heat we mean liability! When we say liability we mean profit! Do our race teams do any break-in? Doom-kopf! Of course not!"

911sanantone

Today is a new day and although I am not a scotch drinker, I do feel better.
Yes, spar10, I worry about me too.
I own these machines for the long haul and try to do whatever is reasonable to insure that the long haul is problem free.
Chuck, the PCA article may a bunch of BS and may be pure confabulation by the author. Any thoughts then as to why Porsche picks 4200 rpm. Why not 5000, why not 4000?
Thanks for the input....

ny991

I had mine up to 7000 or so in the first 200 miles a couple of times. 5400 miles later it purrs and no, I am not burning any oil.

Sleep well!

LexVan

You're fine. I think the 4,200 RPM number is selected (for the break-in process) because of Virocam??

fast1

There has been extensive back and forth regarding Porsche's break-in guidelines. I am trying to adhere to this and most importantly maintaining the rpm below 4200. I now have 200 miles on my 50th and a dear family member (experienced driver) asked if he could drive the car. He downshifted in error (engine was warm) prompting the RPM's to hit 5500 for several seconds then falling back below 4200

There's been lots of speculation about the 4200 RPM break-in limit for US cars only, but I certainly wouldn't be concerned if I exceeded it. I've owned many Porsches over the last four decades, and I have never experienced any engine problems despite not adherring to break-in reommendations. Moreover, if anyone is concerned about that 4200 RPM limit, I wouldn't buy any 991 off the dealers lot that had more than 10 miles on the odometer. Based on the experiences of my son who worked summers at a local Porche dealership, almost all those who test drive Porsches push them to red line with the tacit approval of the salesmen.

enzom

Break-in? What break-in? 2500 miles and haven't burned a drop of oil. Drove my E55 like I stole it. It was the quickest stock E55. Not a single engine/transmission problem in 5 years. I have never observed a break-in procedure as recommended by the manufacturer. I like to enjoy my cars and trucks.

socalsteve

Yes, its broken, sell it to me for $50.00 (its not worth more than that).

Seriously, I bet the factory goes way beyond that when they test the engines.

Enjoy your car!

StudGarden

Exactly. Not only that, but probably somewhere in the neighborhood of between 100% and 100%, every single lease turn in, CPO's included, have vastly exceeded the break in recommendations. Every. Single. One. And by huge, frequent amounts, from day one. Every single one.

So we need to get over it. Its a non event. They are merely guidelines meant to minimize cold crank launch controls and redline gear grinding. With today's engineering and oil quality and filtration the break in paradigms of the past are over hyped because that's what the customer wants to see. If all they said was "make sure the needles are off the stops and have fun" we wouldn't believe them anyway, so they tell us what we want to hear.

There's a huge difference anyway between simply being at a certain RPM versus how you get there. A gentle acceleration to 6000 RPM on a new but warmed up engine is a lot better than a rapid jump to 4200 on an ice cold one. And yet either way the long term difference is minimal even if it exists.

Noah Fect

Until Porsche explains why the break-in recommendations are completely different in other parts of the world, their guidelines can be assumed to be complete BS. Warm it up first, then do as you will.

The PCA article is especially silly. Makes no sense at all.

CBejbl

Have always ignored that limit. Just make sure it's up to temp and drive it as you like. If that means rpms above 4200.....no worries.

chuck911

Good goal and good question. A better one would be why if there is any rpm at all then why would it not be the same for all markets? If its based on anything to do with engineering, that is. Which we can be certain its not. And not just based on some of the evidence others have already posted above either.

There's actually quite a lot of very good mechanical engineering information available, all of which supports the conclusion there are no reasons for avoiding high load and high RPM being used just as soon as possible once the engine is up to operating temperature. Quite the opposite. Full load running is not only not inadvisable, it is desirable!

Near as I can tell the main problems people have with this conclusion boil down to
1. Porsche says otherwise and
2. Lack of 991-specific 'scientific' testing to destruction of thousands of brand new engines.

But Porsche has plenty to gain and nothing to lose (especially in the litigious American market) by censoring the truth, while real machinists, engineers and mechanics have nothing to gain wasting time and money proving what is to them something long since settled. Meanwhile, back at the track, racers (always happy to watch the competition suffer in ignorance) just keep right on running them hard right out of the box.

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.

Now if you're not already sick and tired of this subject here's one of the better articles that focuses on the main issue at hand, seating piston rings. None of the other stuff needs any break-in at all. Its all about getting the rings to seat. http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/1828...l?redirected=1