The current Excellence Magazine had an interesting tid bit from Bruce Anderson on the subject of the 2,000 mile recommended break in period for new Porsches.
In answer to a reader's letter about oil viscosity and break in, Bruce relayed a comment from a factory acquaintance, who suggested that the 2,000 mile break in stemmed from that fact that most owners did not really drive the cars as Porsche intended, thus the required long break in period.
But for those that DO drive their cars hard, they suggested a 300 to 500 mile break in period, using the guidance in the owner's manual, after which you "drive it like you stole it". His last comment is actually somewhat unclear to me, as it almost sounds like he suggests revving to redline right from the start. Not sure about that.
Coming from someone who's '06 CS has all of 200 miles on the odometer, I am liking the sound of that!
Brian
I know Bruce, and he was one of the two PCA tech experts I talked to when I wanted to quickly break-in my car last year so I could get it onto the track and into autocrosses asap. They both (the other was Joel Reiser) said: for the first 900-1000 miles
constantly
vary the RPM up and down, never hold it at the same RPM for more then a few seconds, don't go over 4200 RPM, no short trips, make sure the car gets warmed up all the way before shutting it off. They said the reason the manual says 2000 miles is that most owners (as you said, BG) would not go through all this - so driving the car easily for 2000 miles would somewhat serve the same purpose. they both said the rings still take about 8k miles to seat properly and all the way.
I took their advice, and had the car in it's first autocross at 980 miles, and it's been a very tight, strong motor that has burned only a minuscule amount of oil.
Beez, maybe this advice should be turned into an article "
How to break in your new Cayman -two methods
"? The subject seems to come up rather frequently.
I will not be breaking mine in gingerly. I will not abuse it. I will warm it up properly, but I will be putting mine through some hard accelerations and progressively more RPMs from 500-2,000 miles.
In my opinion, the break in is just as much for the driver as it is for the car.
If I would have done it by the book I would have waited one year!
Russ
That's sound advice that's been around for breaking in any new motor for decades, if not centuries. I'd add, don't use the cruise control in that time span. There will always be, and always are, people who swear it's not needed. They will tell you how strong their motor is because they red-lined it off the dealer's lot. And, I don't disagree with them - with today's motors they can handle that. But, why take the risk? Especially if you plan to keep the car for a long time.
