Infrequent driving & RPM's

[tjbrune]

Afternoon Pelicans,

This is the most informative, active site I've ever seen, as well as quite entertaining !

I have a 95 C-4 Cab with very good body and near perfect interior with about 28,000 miles. I say about because the odometer and trip meter stopped @ 26,400 when I had the last oil change and 2 year maintainance care.
Coincidentally, there was a great thread last week on replacing an odometer gear (plastic) without having to replace the speedometer (which works fine). I want to keep the original miles odometer on the car, and as accurate as possible.
I only drive the car a few days a month, and lately out at my country place so I can run it out a little on some good surfaced, lightly travelled roads (man, this car is really tight around corners !). I'm careful to get engine temp up a little before pushing RPM's at all, but what is best for a car that gets driven about 25-100 miles a week, but less than 200 miles a month ? What is ideal to keep the engine "healthy" and clean, run anough to keep alive, but keeping the miles in "very low miles" category ? Should I stay under a certain RPM (ie 5500 for exmple), or push the red line now and then slightly ? The guy I bought the car from (a friend) told me that it was better to run this car at higher RPM's, like 3000-3500, but that really sounds winey to me. When just driving, I usually cruise under 3k. When accelerating thru gears, around 5000.
It's not show quality without new paint (a few rock chips and quarter size shallow dent in pass door), but really clean.

thanks

tim

[Rot 911]

Get the oil warmed up and then feel free to run up to redline in every gear. Your friend gave you good advice. 911's are much happier above 3000 rpms than below it.

[svandamme]

as long as you give your engine plenty of time to get up to temperature, your car will appreciate to be redlined once in a while

this applies to any car , not just 911's
911's just like it even more but they also require longer to warm up

[masraum]

Tim, listen to your buddy. THese cars are different than other cars. Rev the thing up. How you think it sounds isn't the same as how it thinks it sounds. Run it to redline. They aren't fine china or Fords, you won't break it.

[vash]

i would drive it more too. what are you saving it for? the next guy that buys it?

[rcecale]

Tim,

I just went through learning all of this. The consensus here, as you can see already, is to rev it up and drive it. These things love to be "flogged"!

Oh yeah, welcome to the board, these guys are loaded with all the information you will ever need to know about your car!

Randy

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

A '95 C4 Cab is not a rare car and never--at least in our lifetimes--will be. Why are you being so cautious with it? This is a car to be enjoyed, not put into a vault. You don't need to drive it like you stole it, certainly, but it sounds like you need to get a bit more laid-back about it and enjoy it.

A tale also recounted in my book, "The Gold-Plated Porsche": A friend who works for Porsche Cars North America was some years ago assigned to shepherd Ferry Porsche around at the annual PCA Porsche Parade. "So how does it make you feel," Andy Schupack said to Ferry, "to see 600 cars all with your name on them, all in absolutely impeccable concours condition?"

"It makes me very sad," Ferry said. "These cars were meant to be driven."

Stephan

[Langers]

993s have to be driven hard otherwise you'll have all sorts of problems with engine management sensors being triggered by excess carbon buildup.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Langers
993s have to be driven hard otherwise you'll have all sorts of problems with engine management sensors being triggered by excess carbon buildup.

LA Calif shops are seeing a lot of 993s needing valve jobs at 60k mi because of mild street driving.

[Langers]

Yea valve jobs and cleaning the carbon out of the heads simply because they don't get driven hard enough. Although from what I know of LA's traffic, I can't blame people for driving at low RPMs!

[Bill Douglas]

This is the most informative, active site I've ever seen, as well as quite entertaining !

You should see what the lunatics around here post in the off topics forum

It sounds a nice car, have fun!

[carmaneddy]

Do a Driver Ed event every two months.
This car was designed to be driven on an autobahn at full throttle for a full tank of gas!!!! Treat it like a Ford and it will act like one.
Detroit has never put that kind of design parameter to its engineers

[Paul Franssen]

Originally posted by RoninLB
LA Calif shops are seeing a lot of 993s needing valve jobs at 60k mi because of mild street driving.

Now this struck me!
I have been reading sporadic threads on this forum regarding "early valve guide wear" on Carrera's. Yet (but I might be mistaken), this phenomenon does not seem to be particularly documented in Belgium: I have not really heard any reports from Belgian or French Carrera owners of "early valve guide wear".
Could it be that the US reports of "early valve guide wear" are interrelated with a particular manner of driving the cars?

Maybe lots of U.S. Porsche owners drive with TOO LOW arps???

I am not writing this to badtalk Americans (and I know very well that, all too often, people distort the truth by making the fatal error of generalizing - which I deeply resent) but I have heard it again and again over here, when talking of old (say upto the seventies) Porsches imported from the USA, that their engines all too often need to be "loosened up", it being stated that "they haven"t been driven correctly" (the implication being "not fast enough"). I have not resided with US Porsche crowd to be confirming or denying the veracity of that statement, my hunch however is that, perhaps, it is true (that they were driven too slow, too low in rpm, too often).

I know for a fact that many European Porsche fans have and still are driving their cars FAST (and this especially in the years past, when policing over here was much more lax than it has now become). I personally recall a lifetime of 911's screaming past on autobahn-type roads at speeds of, say at least 180 and more km per hour...

I wonder, in fact, what the differences would be between US and European driving patters? Would my perceived difference be for real or just a figment of my (and, I believe, many other Europeans') imagination??? How can this be evaluated???

[Matt Smith]

Bill- you must be emerging between all the freaky winds and exercising the 911 (to the prescribed revs) again. Good to hear!

Stephen: that quote bought tears to my eyes- nearly. To hear Ferry himself say he was sad to see concourse 911's is a watershed moment. Now I am duty bound to use my car more often. There is no excuse . (sadly, it has been collecting garage queenerie for a while now).

Paul F.- give the yanks a break- they've been getting it from everyone for a while now! But maybe it's all down to their low-rev big block herritage! C'mon guys...put yer foot down!

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Matt Smith

Paul F.- give the yanks a break- they've been getting it from everyone for a while now! But maybe it's all down to their low-rev big block herritage! C'mon guys...put yer foot down!

I didn't state the "US". I specifically said LA Calif. And the young beauty in her 993 going to the hairdresser or going to visit her friends at the local coffee shop does not have a big block heritage. If you can't find this beauty you may be able to find her 993 in the crowded parking lot by examining the roof. You can search for little scratches on the 993's roof that got there from her placing shopping packages there while she finds her keys.

[304065]

You can search for little scratches on the 993's roof that got there from her placing shopping packages there while she finds her keys

Ron, you are in excellent form this summer.

Take the speedo out and send it to North Hollywood speedometer and tell them to fix it and keep the mileage the same.

Then,

Take the car to drivers ed and flog the living daylights out of it. Being a C4 you will be able to get on the power a lot earlier in the corners.

No kidding, 911s that sit, like airplanes, develop problems. Oxidation forms on electrical components, oil drips off the internal engine components.

Just do it safely: the limits of a C4S are so high that you can't possibly explore them on any public road without hazard to persons, property or your license.

[svandamme]

Originally posted by Paul Franssen


I know for a fact that many European Porsche fans have and still are driving their cars FAST (and this especially in the years past, when policing over here was much more lax than it has now become). I personally recall a lifetime of 911's screaming past on autobahn-type roads at speeds of, say at least 180 and more km per hour...

I wonder, in fact, what the differences would be between US and European driving patters? Would my perceived difference be for real or just a figment of my (and, I believe, many other Europeans') imagination??? How can this be evaluated???

1
no automatic gearboxes in Europe
they usually are beeing frowned upon
>coz they suck
2
many contries tax on engine displacement
so little engines and kids that learn to drive
wanting to get the most out of it
> revving and thrashing whatever vehicle you can get your hands on, if you enter a corner , you try to brake the least possible , cause it takes forever to accelerate in a 1.3 2nd hand peugout

3
little roads , lot's of starting and stopping and braking and cornering
> learning to shift and corner and be a wannabe rally driver

4 police ain't respected much , and there weren't much speeding laws untill recently
>sign says 120km/h , average is 140km/h , fines are doable up till 160km/h changes of beeing caught are minimal
that's how most drivers driving today got used to it
(it's changing now)

these 4 things , to me probably mean that a "spirited" drive in the US as you guys call it... is probably how the average driver in Europe has been driving the last 20 years

i once met a bigshot lawyer in an american company in Brussels
who said he'de never let any family member of his drive a car if they visit cause european driving would be to much of a culture shock and would most likely result in some sort of damage, or at the very least a very scary drive for the visiting wife or daughter...
(Brussels ringway ain't civilized )

Paul , what do you think? am i sort of on target with the above situation scetch of European(Belgian) driving?

[Bill Douglas]

And the young beauty in her 993 going to the hairdresser or going to visit her friends at the local coffee shop

I think this chick sounds just my sort!

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Bill Douglas
I think this chick sounds just my sort!

no problem.. in LA Calif there are tons of them.

[Paul Franssen]

Thanks Stijn. I agree with you (re your latest remark in this thread) in full.

Your -rather cynical- National appraisal is dead-on. Well, let's say it matches my track record and perception of Belgian driving. I have squeezed every last extra smidgin' of speed out of 1700 cc Opel diesels (and I'm still alive!). Had a few crashes, too. Very incorrect, all that. I know Americans to be scared *****less when seeing how they drive over here. And the statistics show them to be right, too.

However, I publicly state that my driving behavior in the Porsche is NOT like that: this car is just too unholy fast (in comparision), and I enjoy it's "normal" speed. That means gassing it on big roads (in accelleration, not in top speed), as well as being extra careful AND respectful for legal limits on 50-70 km/h limited roads, as well as being VERY wary of the unknown curves up ahead (with the always possible mid-curve liftoff phenomenon)...
When driving with other Porsches in group, I'm always last. My skills are not good enough!

All this to say that, yes, Porsches (and every other type of car) (used to) drive FAST over here.

And, I repeat: there are far fewer reports of prematurely used valve guides on Carreras over here (I am in fact checking that statement on a French Porsche website, and it is being confirmed!).

The fact then (from Pelican forum source) that "some valve guides are used at 40-50.000 miles" (and others are NOT), then, would reflect on the DRIVER, not on the ENGINE!

BTW
It has been just a year now, that almost every major intersection in Flanders has been equiped with four-way radar flashers, leading to heavy fines. All this has been amply trumpeted in the media, and ...indeed... the public are driving MUCH slower. The push towards safety IS working, there is no doubt about that.

The other part of the country, Wallonia, has almost NO flashers.
So I now drive there...