Wannabeproracer

so I have about 600 miles on my GTS, dealer told me that I don't need to do any "break in" as its already factory "broken in". I've seen some Porsche manuals say "break in" period is like the first 2000 miles, which your not supposed to use high RPMs. I know that's pretty standard for a new car but I'm getting conflicting messages. I would probably still need to head to the dealer to have them torque my centerlock wheels before my track events.

I'm still debating on whether to start tracking her with such low miles...

Please provide your suggestions

equ

I personally would wait till 3000 miles, change oil and then maybe go for it. But then I plan on keeping mine for a while. To each his/her own.

Fred R. C4S

At 500 miles I ran a DE, but kept my revs below 5000 under power, but did exceed that on downshifts. As I have a PDK, this was easy to do in Sport+. I now have 2300 miles and am down 1 bar from full on oil level. In my case I don't think I hurt anything but my pride as I let spec Miatas by to pass me.

I once picked up a new 911 964 C2 on Euro delivery on a Monday in May '93. I asked the Porsche rep who was conducting the delivery if there were any special instructions for break-in. He told me to keep below 5000 for the first 500 miles, go easy on the brakes and tires for the first 100 miles, and to vary my road speed to proper break-in the ring and pinion. I mentioned to him that I had a DE the coming Thursday at the Nurburgring and asked if he had any advice. He simply told me to reach 500 miles before Thursday and I'd be fine. I later drove that car 35000 miles and seldom had to add oil between 5000 mile change intervals.

YMMV

gravedgr

So long as you have been following, and continue to follow, the golden rule (<4k RPM until oil is at operating temps) you are good to go, IMHO.

Mike in CA

If it were my car, I'd wait until I had a couple of thousand miles on the engine, (basically the factory break-in period), and an oil change before I tracked it. With only a few random exceptions for quality check purposes, Porsche engines are now run in briefly, cold, on a test stand to check basic operation. I watched them do it. There's no way this process constitutes being "broken in" at the factory as claimed by your dealer.

There's a lot of debate around this subject. My opinion is, if the "run it hard out of the box" people are wrong, you might compromise your engine's long term performance and reliability. If the "follow the factory break-in" folks are wrong, all you've compromised is your patience for the first 2K miles. Your choice. I went with option 2.

ivangene

most race car motors get a couple hours of tuning and go straight to the track...I doubt there is anything "special" about waiting 500-1000 or even 3000 miles....

acao

Most race car engines get a total rebuild every weekend too.

Mike in CA

+1 And they sure aren't intended to last for 100K miles.....

zanwar

You can stay within all the break-in parameters and still have a great time at the track. I'd go for it.

unclejosh

I would give 2 K miles with highly variable revs then do an oil change. I also recommend warming the oil before agressive driving as per gravdgr.

My GTS responded great to this and has not eaten a drop of oil for 12 K miles.

The car really loosened up at 8 K miles: both motor and suspension.

Have patince now and fun later. Better in the long run.

Wannabeproracer

Having raced cars, I would agree that race motors get very few hours (miles) of break in, but of course the race prepped motors were balanced and blue printed. More importantly I never ran those motors more than 30 hrs without some sort of rebuild. (I do endurance racing)

Back to the GTS, I'm going to wait until at least 3000 miles, patience is a virtue that I'm obviously still developing. Luckily I have a friend that wants me to help instruct him at a DE and he has a Cayman R that is fully "broken in" that we can have some fun with.

Thanks everyone for your input!

Turn3 Autosport

Take it to the track!

During break in a motor needs to see load. Pressure on both sides of the rings through compression and vacuum. I have never broken in a new car motor by following the manual.

When we build a motor we go out and put some load on it. It will be 95% broken in during the first 300 miles. We keep an eye on temps and get some good load up and down hills with lots of throttle. We will not waranty a motor build if we do not get to break it in this way.....

What exactly will keeping the revs below 5000 do for the motor?

You may or may not agree with this guy, but makes for good reading...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

ADias

Correct! There's a NatGeo factory tour (first broadcast a year or two ago) clearly stating that Carrera engines are pressure tested without being fired up. They then run 10 minutes on a treadmill, as the final production stage of the fully assembled car, well below redline. Whoever says the engine is broken in at the factory is ignorant of well-known public facts.

kyrocks

Wow! Another break-in discussion where everyone thinks they are right!

simsgw

I agree. Both with Mike's recommendation and his reasoning. And let me add that all those "you don't need break-in" assertions haven't managed to convince a very experienced engineer, though they've been trying for fifty years. Their position suffers for the lack of any argument except "I don't wanna wait." Whereas Mike has me and Porsche on his side of the argument.

Gary