Is there a recommended or needed break in period/miles for a TTS before adding any of the 1 - 4 stage mods?

 

It's funny for a while we were trying to see what the lowest mileage mod was. 23 Miles straight form the dealership haha. Then 76 was the next lowest and so on.

Personally I don't think it matters when done properly and treated properly. Maybe not a ***** to the wall stage 4 till after 1000 miles or so and an oil change but otherwise they have been fine.

 

Welcome. Great to have some more modded 991's in The OC.

 

Regardless whether are not any mod's are in the car's future, you should attempt to adhere to the factory break in.

This will let all the parts adapt (wear) to each other and develop surfaces that resist wear going forward and for a long time. My 2002 Boxster engine's now has over 306K miles on it and the engine runs as good as it ever did.

This is critical in a stock engine but with a mod'd engine making even more power producing more heat subjecting everything to more stress is it beyond critical.

Besides this gives any "new" car and engine problems a chance to surface.

Make the mod's too soon and if an engine problem appears the odds are that the mod's will be blamed and any warranty claim denied.

If the problem say is a noisy lifter this can represent a big out of pocket expense to have the lifter replaced and you won't like this but the SOP is if one is noisy all are replaced on the bank.

My advice is unless it is forbidden in the owners manual do an early oil/filter service.

A new engine sheds lots of trash. And a new engine -- especially a turbo-charged engine -- accumulates lots of contamination in its oil. The best course of action is to drain this oil and replace the filter and refill with fresh oil.

I can post pics of the engine oil filter housing oil and filter element from my new 2008 Cayman S with just 750 miles on it. The oil was filthy. The filter filthy. While the filth was "trapped" in the oil filter housing and filter element there is a concern that at cold start the filter is bypassed to avoid over-pressuring the filter and unfiltered oil is circulated and this then pumps that filthy oil throughout the engine.

A 2nd oil/filter service done not quite 750 miles later found just a hint of trash in the filter oil. Then at 2K miles at the end of "break in" I had the oil/filter changed once more this at the dealer.

Doing an oil/filter service at the end of nominal break in then has the engine with fresh oil. Lab and field testing has found engine break in continues for some thousands of miles beyond the nominal break in miles so at least the engine has fresh oil for this continued break in.

 

Everyone will have a different opinion on this.

Personally, I drive them slightly less aggressive for the first 100 miles or so. But that's it. I do not baby it by any means. I will go full boost once I know it has 93 in the tank. ( Dealer gas is crap and I don't let them fill it. )


I turned my 16 into a stage 2.5 from Sambo at 120 miles.


Car never had any issues, and still goes strong.

Only problem I ran into, was that once I went 2.5 I was ready for stage 4 in a few weeks. LOL


Mike

 

Great feedback guys. I have always been very kind to my cars. My current CLS 63 i was pretty easy on it for the 1st 500ish miles. problem is i dont drive a lot and it took a while. Would you say that going on long drives are steady(ish) speeds is sufficient or should it be in stop and go normal driving?

 

Mix it up as much as you can and mind warm-up/cool down. Do an oil change at 500-1000 regardless of mods or not. You will be fine.

 

The engine does not need to be broken in, the breakin perod is for the tranny

 

Im on my 9th Turbo - all 2-3 year leases. I only drive 2 speeds - stop and full - always in sports plus. Ive launched them on the way home from the dealer brand new and drive 15k miles per year. Never any major problems except the old clutch accumulator problem in the manuals. I only do the annual service! I usually upgrade the stereo and aftermarket exhaust. Gave up on the chip about 4 cars ago as they already haul *** on the street. No track time. These cars are bullet proof.

 

The guidelines are to avoid driving the new car/engine at a steady speed and engine RPM.

The concern is the pistons/rings/cylinders see the same pressure curve mile after mile and the break in wear is confined to a portion of the area the ring/piston travel in the cylinder.

But then when you drive the car, run the engine, in a different way, the pressure curve is different and essentially the rings (mainly the rings) are being forced out against the area of the cylinder that is not broken in.

What I have done is just drive the car around town with an occasional run up say a freeway on ramp running up through the gears using quite a bit of throttle but avoiding going over the 4K (or whatever it is) break in red line.

The around town driving gives me a chance to drive the car off from a dead stop and I can run up through a couple of gears so the engine experiences a good mix of engine RPMs and loads at less than the break in red line.

The hard acceleration up the freeway on ramp lets me use more throttle and for longer than I could on a surface street.

The idea is to just give the engine a mix of engine speeds vs. loads so the rings/pistons/cylinders develop a long lasting surface finish that provides good sealing with no wear over, well, over hundreds of thousands of miles.

Takes me pretty much no time to break in an engine. I mean the break in miles is say 2K but I can drive 500+ miles in one day. For example with my Boxster I left Oak Grove, MO (just east of KC MO) heading east and ended up in Jeff City MO. Then from Jeff City drove down south and then drove along the southern part of MO over to Branson. Had a steak dinner at a restaurant in Branson then headed north and back home.

 

Don't beat on my cars, but don't baby them either. On my 17 turbo s I changed the oil at about 900 miles. The porsche tech and I dissected the filter and found nothing--perfectly clean.

 

When I changed the oil at 750 miles in my new 2008 Cayman S the filter element was filthy. There was even a drop of water or two on the filter housing threads.

The filter housing oil had a metallic sheen to it. (It was just aluminum but still it was not pretty to look at.)

Later at end of break in at the dealer I was having the oil/filter service done. Was talking to the tech and showed him the pics of the Cayman oil filter element and housing and oil. He said often the filter of a new engine looks like the one from my Cayman.

The techs never bother to capture the oil from the housing that was "new" to him and I know from my engine rebuidling experience the first oil change oil is very likely going to be filthy with stuff so it was no real surprise to me. Frankly I'd be more surprised if the oil came out with no signs of anything in it.

 

That's good to hear. Do you return your cars to stock when you lease is up or do the new owners get the benefit of your stereo and exhaust mods?

 

I gave up on removing the mods. I do not keep my stock exhaust, so its a pain to remove/swap. I have had the dealer throw in the cost of swapping the AMP for the stereo into the new car (its only a few hundred dollars)