993.986.

Interesting subject came up on another board, somebody selling an 02 996 motor stated it had never even been redlined, I posted that I thought it was necessary to rev up these motors to above 4000 routinely to properly stress or stretch something (I think Bruce Anderson's book was where I read that). I routinely redline my 87 Targa all the time and it runs fine and has never been touched internally. Anyways, another author posted that this was NOT true with the newer water-cooled engines. Has anybody else heard this? Is that really true? If so it would really change the way I would drive. Isn't that why there is a rev limiter. Are Porsches 'softer' now??

DreamCarrera

The idea behind redlining older 911s was not to exercise the engines but rather to burn the carbon off of engine components such as valves, pistons, heads, etc. If older 911s were routinely driven at low RPMs they had a tendency to not completely burn all of their fuel. The un-burnt fuel would then form a carbon coating on the above mentioned engine components. Running the engine at high RPMs would get the engine components hot enough to burn off any carbon coating which may have formed.

Modern Porsches, with their superior engine management systems, do not "carbon up" as did the older models. Therefore, it is not as necessary to occasionally rev the newer models.

man_of_ice

Except for the fun factor naturally ;-)

rmillnj

The only time I have ever heard someone brag about never redlining their Porsche, they were also bragging about how the car had never been in the rain or snow. They were also bragging about how they were able to drive the car up to 135mph on the interstate without worrying about the cops because they were a big time sports attorney and everyone knew them.

Need I say more? We really don't need to have these kinds of people driving Porsches except when it is time to buy their cars from them after they tire of their status symbol.

AndyK

I saw in the Coochas 993 videos that Porsche ran the 993 engines at redline all day to make sure they were solid. Check it out if you get a few minutes.

There is a difference between running to redline, and OVER revving an engine.

DreamCarrera

+1

ElTorrente

I don't understand those who don't rev their engines (?!?!?!). The engine doesn't even make it's maximum horsepower until somewhere around 6800rpms, so if you don't want to rev the engine, then you may as well buy a 200horsepower econo car or something.

As for me, I redline my engine every single day! 114,000 miles and still running clean and strong. Still don't burn ANY oil between oil changes, either.

I disagree about the modern ECU preventing carbon build up. I mean, I'm sure it does for the most part, but I'll bet mine has far less carbon build up than an engine that never reaches the redline, and is lugging around in a high gear all the time.

Patrick E

+1. It's too much fun and sounds too good not to run it up!

10 GT3

First, none of these engines were designed to just be driven at low rpms. This is why you have an oil pressure gauge (Druk pressure in older Porsches). It takes rpms to spin the oil pump to put oil pressure through the engine. You are supposed to drive the car with at least 3 bars of pressure. In the owner's manual for my 79' S/C it states to never drive with the engine below 2500 rpms. The minimum speeds for shifting each gear work out to around 4000 rpms.