Haku

Point taken Rolf but during breakin I would have thought the idea is to put gentle wear on all the gears and their relevant components... hence the cycle approach. But... I'm no expert nor mechanic.

Likemystoppie?

Johnny I don't remember seeing that girl in your avatar in the Tequipment catalog!

gweedo911

I followed the Break-in recommendations. The car used about 1/4q of oil during the 2k miles. Since then, very little oil usage with 11k on the speedo. However, according to a good senior Porsche Tech, Porsche test their brand new engines to redline before they're mounted. Sounds like all engines have already touched that redline before the car is delivered.....
just my 02....

JohnnyBahamas

Me neither... I'd have ordered 5 of them.

Mike Murphy

I've built and broken-in quite a few engines. They run tight and hot at first. Porsche's 4200 RPM and 2,000 miles is arbitrary, but it's probably well beyond the break-in point. They have to draw a line somewhere. Increased revs puts more stress on the engine. Metal bends and stretches and gets weaker as time passes, along with hot/cold cycles. During break-in, you want the metal to fatigue and bend and stretch to a small degree. This produces "give" in the engine. Something's gotta give or else it will break. This is partially the reason for break-in. You'd rather have the rods stretch than break.

"Drive it like you stole it" works, but if you do that at 0 miles, you'll wear the engine prematurely, I don't care if the engine is warmed up.

The reason why Porsche may redline their engines before completion is not for the good of the engine. They are trying to immediately identify a problem so as not to put a bad engine out there that will cost them more in the long run. It's a necessary evil. Since their engines run 200,000, 300,000 or more miles, they know they can accept this wear to save money in the long-run. If Porsche had lifetime warranties on their engines, they would not do this.

Five hundred miles used to be the properly break-in time, but with today's synthetics, we need more. I'd vary the engine revs from 1500-4200 during the first 1000 miles, using no more than 50% of the engine power at any given RPM. Change the oil and then start running the engine pretty good after that (80% for 500 miles). The remaining 500 miles and 100% can and should be used to run the engine "like you stole it." At this point, you'll be stressing the remaining components of the car, such as bushings, body panels, seats, etc.

I should also mention that a 3,000 mile trip is only good if you make sure you cold/hot cycle the car enough times to complete the break-in process. Running the car non-stop does not give the car a change to expand/contract for break-in.

Haku

Thanks for a sensible bit of information which for me will be the way to go.

Are you saying that you would reccommend changing the oil at the 1000 mile mark?

mdrums

I told my dealer that I wanted to change my oil now that I've got almost 2000 miles on my 997S and they told me I would be wasting my money but they will change the oil and gladly take my money.

ChipAZ

This really makes the most sense. I never considered the hot and cold cycle. I think it is also important not just start the car and drive it around the block. Get it hot and get the oil temp up to normal. Especially if the air temp is cold. I'm really picky about that with any engine.

ChipAZ

I know the dealer will tell me the same thing. Maybe OT here but what about this 20,000 miles in between changes? That's a long time. Is synthetic oil that good?

dstrimbu

Hey Johnny, will you PM me the rear view of your avatar, please? <g>

DAAAAAMMMMMMMMN! She is spectacular!

-don

Mike Murphy

No way, synthetic oil is not that good. Most people recommend 7,500 miles for synthetic. There is a whole other topic regarding oil change intervals, but for this purpose, I'm only talking about break-in.

There is one major problem associated with keeping break-in oil in the engine for too long:

Engines are assembled with lots of different grease and oil compounds. For example, there is usually special camshaft lube that is not like motor oil and is required for break-in of the camshaft lobes. There is usually heavy grease applied to some needle bearings, during assembly. I've seen valve springs coated with a sticky oil substance that is clearly not engine oil. And then you have some parts that are actually painted or have some paint overspray due to manufacturing. Also keep in mind that many of these parts are exposed to airborne particles during assembly, such as dust. Some of these parts simply have a very thin layer of soap residue leftover from cleaning. So all these components are going to mix together when the engine breaks in.

How do you get all this stuff out of the engine? Changing the oil is the only way. Yes, synthetic is almost that good, but it is not good enough to actually clean the oil and remove dirt.

The other problem is rare, but I have seen it, and it has to do with the oil filter. When an engine breaks-in, you get a lot of metal shavings and metal debris that comes off into the oil. The oil filter catches most of the bigger pieces, while the drain plug magnets catches the rest. Some stays in the oil in liquid form and bypasses the filter, causing no real damage. A problem can occur, however, wherein the large pieces of sharp metal, under pressure from the pump, can puncture a hold in the filter and let some of the pieces out into the oil system. This can lead to a reduced lifespan or possibly serious engine damage for obvious reasons. A good filter, like the ones on a P-car, should not have this problem, but it can happen. I would change the filter after break-in for this purpose, along with the oil of course.

So, if you don’t want to change the oil at 1,000 miles, I would for sure change the oil and filter at 2,000 miles. After that, 7,500 miles seems to be an accepted oil change interval for most engines running synthetic.

ChipAZ

Thanks, that answers my question. I just don't understand why Porsche does not recommend the obvious.

RR

The break in is not for the motor, its for the "mating" of all the different moving components of the car.

Cars these days are built in pods in different parts of the factory or maybe even at a sub-contractors. Transmissions in one pod. Engine in another. Suspension in another, etc etc etc.

When moving parts that are manufactured away from each other are finally assembled together , it is important that they mate up properly and this is primarily why all manufacturers stress a break in period.

Your doing more damage to a motor lugging at 2-3000rpm. You have to run it throughout its entire rpm range, once it is fully warmed up.

gravedgr

murphyslaw1978 - I'm curious, would you mind sharing your professional background/source of knowledge? No offense meant.

Mike Murphy

Most is based on experience, non-professionally. My father ownes a engineering shop and I worked there for many years in high school and college. My college major was mechanical engineering, before I changed it to electrical engineering, and at that time, I was rebuilding engines and working on cars, trucks, tractors, etc. for fun. Two favorite classes were "strength of materials" and "fluid dynamics."