# How do you do your Italian Tuneup



## StuMacLean (Aug 9, 2003)

All I ever read describing the "Italian Tuneup" (best damn name for anything, ever) is high RPM's for extended periods. 
But, how high, and for how long?
I would consider anything over 4.5k high rpm's, and anything over 4 minutes a long time. 
What do you guys do. If we could keep reply posts to a simple format of:
Revs: X.X k
Time: X Min
It'd be easier to tabulate and get an average.


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## tdotA3mike (Feb 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

usually i go for about 10 to 15 mins in S which tends to keep around 4k 5k 
sometimes i just do standing starts with LC at 3500K and shift every 6k


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## Malaco0219 (Mar 18, 2007)

S Mode as well, or i keep the revs up


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## vliou (Nov 22, 2009)

120km/hr - 3000-5000 RPM using tiptronic


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## jpimp61 (Mar 22, 2008)

*Re: (vliou)*

15 min highway trip. 5th gear not 6th. keep it just over 3k rpms


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

well, with my manual, if i cant get on a highway (traffic, no time, etc.) i just stay in 3rd or 4th gear for about 20 mins.
keep the speed constant. you want the valves constantly moving to shake off the crap and to heat up like nuts.
if, however, i get on the highway, i stay in 4th or 5th and go about 100 MPH for about 20 mins. if I see any other drivers, i slow to 75 and drop to 3d or 4th.
MAKE SURE YOU TAKE IT EASY BEFORE YOU PARK. I usually go nice and slow for about 5 mins afterward.
if you park your car and shut the car off too soon after heating everything up, u might bake ur oil alot more than it needs to be. I know we still circulate coolant, but its much better when there is coolant AND oil.


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## StuMacLean (Aug 9, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (Krieger)*

Kreiger, you're fliippin nuts, 20 minutes at 100mph? I'd have lost my liscence by now. 
Anyways, I think I need to do my tuneups a little longer. I'm not prone to wringing out the motor frequently







but i think I've gotta get up towards a 20 minute tuneup.


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## Malaco0219 (Mar 18, 2007)

One problem with DSG is it upshifts too mch. In the city, i find i cruise at 4th gear around 80km/h. that keeps the revs up as well while you cruise to do a good italian tune up.


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## tdotA3mike (Feb 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*


_Quote, originally posted by *Malaco0219* »_One problem with DSG is it upshifts too mch. In the city, i find i cruise at 4th gear around 80km/h. that keeps the revs up as well while you cruise to do a good italian tune up.


HPA stG 2 + M will fix that! 

_Quote, originally posted by *StuMacLean* »_Kreiger, you're fliippin nuts, 20 minutes at 100mph? I'd have lost my liscence by now. 
Anyways, I think I need to do my tuneups a little longer. I'm not prone to wringing out the motor frequently







but i think I've gotta get up towards a 20 minute tuneup. 


my record was Halloween night (late for a party and seriously road lagged from the 1600KM drive in 2 days) 234 KPH for 15 minutes twice up in Sarina (aka middle of no where) heading to London coming from Chicago


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*Re: FV-QR (StuMacLean)*


_Quote, originally posted by *StuMacLean* »_Kreiger, you're fliippin nuts, 20 minutes at 100mph? I'd have lost my liscence by now. 
Anyways, I think I need to do my tuneups a little longer. I'm not prone to wringing out the motor frequently







but i think I've gotta get up towards a 20 minute tuneup. 

lmao, u just gotta know where to go. out where i live, im like 45 mins away from yougottapurtymouthville where there are literally miles of freshly paved, but abandoned, streets! they are all too busy hookin up with their cousins i assume.


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## utekineir (Jul 2, 2008)

*Re: (Malaco0219)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Malaco0219* »_One problem with DSG is it upshifts too mch. In the city, i find i cruise at 4th gear around 80km/h. that keeps the revs up as well while you cruise to do a good italian tune up.

s mode
italian tuneup on a dsg is so easy a caveman could do it.


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## mk6_myke (Jul 16, 2009)

*Re: (utekineir)*

Noob question. What does this do? Is there any sort of chemical your supposed to be using?


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

i dont understand what ur asking.
just get in the car and drive the piss out of it. take it to redline a few times, rip her up.
you could seafoam before if u wanted of course.


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## rippie74 (Sep 26, 2007)

Well yesterday coming home from the shop I went an avg. of 90-100mph @ 4000 rpm for about 25 miles


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## mk6_myke (Jul 16, 2009)

*Re: (rippie74)*

And that cleans the engine?







Ive never heard of that


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## chewbacca5017 (Apr 20, 2007)

I make an almost-weekly trip to my buddy's place about 30 minutes away on the highway. Once a month or so, I'll do the entire highway portion of the trip in 4th gear.. Then I'll take it easy after getting off the exit to cool things down. Seems to be working great for me.


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*Re: (dubman6)*

yep. it cleans the valves a bit. they get super hot and move alot, so the carbon built up on them comes off.
VW recommends it in their patent.


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## rickjaguar (Apr 23, 2009)

*Re: (chewbacca5017)*

i do a 25 minute drive to my next nearest town in 4th and RPMs are 3000-3500.


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## LEWXCORE (Jul 7, 2007)

*FV-QR*

100 mph for 20 minutes......lol I guess highway patrol won't ever catch up to you patrolling at least...just gotta watch out up ahead.


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## rippie74 (Sep 26, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (LEWXCORE)*


_Quote, originally posted by *LEWXCORE* »_100 mph for 20 minutes......lol I guess highway patrol won't ever catch up to you patrolling at least...just gotta watch out up ahead.

Yea man I was moving along & looking in my rearview mirror & kept an eye out ahead of me as well.


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## tdotA3mike (Feb 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

just did some high rev snow drifting in an empty parking lot on my way back from the gym!


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## PatrickVas (Aug 23, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (tdotA3mike)*


_Quote, originally posted by *tdotA3mike* »_just did some high rev snow drifting in an empty parking lot on my way back from the gym!









Ahhhh, I envy you right now... Favorite part of the winter http://****************.com/smile/emlove.gif


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

yeah... my winters... rain, fog, heat waves...
i hate FL... we are the armpit of the USA.


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## StuMacLean (Aug 9, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (Krieger)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Krieger* »_yeah... my winters... rain, fog, heat waves...
i hate FL... we are the armpit of the USA.

Haha. Yeah, Florida is sort of a dump. I fly through the airport all the time, and I always see someone I just can't believe actually exists.


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## aeproberts21 (Apr 10, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (StuMacLean)*

4-8 autocross runs a month during season and the occasional highway blast during winter.


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## Malaco0219 (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (Krieger)*

I wish we had no snow up here. I like summer all year around.


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*


_Quote, originally posted by *StuMacLean* »_
Haha. Yeah, Florida is sort of a dump. I fly through the airport all the time, and I always see someone I just can't believe actually exists. 


its the south... what can you do? I cant wait to graduate college and GTFO!


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## tdotA3mike (Feb 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*


_Quote, originally posted by *Malaco0219* »_I wish we had no snow up here. I like summer all year around.



dont mind a bit of winter just not to much, snow drifting FTW


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## Malaco0219 (Mar 18, 2007)

^ haha i dont like my car in winter mode, and having to worry about scraping over unshoveled snow..


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## tdotA3mike (Feb 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*


_Quote, originally posted by *Malaco0219* »_^ haha i dont like my car in winter mode, and having to worry about scraping over unshoveled snow..



my car is a DD and takes a beating its why i have not lowered her yet


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## mk6_myke (Jul 16, 2009)

*Re: FV-QR (Krieger)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Krieger* »_
its the south... what can you do? I cant wait to graduate college and GTFO!

hahaha...agreed!








http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## StuMacLean (Aug 9, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (dubman6)*

I don't even think of Florida as "the south" (not that I'm an authority on the topic). The place just seems to be a state alone. Nothing else comes close.


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## thethirdjq (Apr 7, 2009)

I have had to do a lot 500 mile trips over that last year from VA to GA on the interstate and after a fill up after the car is sufficiently warmed up I will run for about 50 miles in 5th gear above 3000 rpm. Keeping above 3000 rpm is what VAG recommends in the patent to break up carbon build up.


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## [email protected] (Apr 14, 2005)

*FV-QR*

The Italian Tuneup is mostly for those that baby their cars more than they drive them.
Hit WOT once or twice to redline every 500 miles or so and you'll never need one.
Commuting or daily driving like a Grandma for extended periods of time is why you even need to do one in the first place.
Its called the Italian Tuneup because Ferrari identified that the super rich that were buying their super cars and were never taking them past low rpm's because they didn't want to "hurt their baby". Ferrari was the first to recommend at the dealership level to perform WOT runs to clean out the oil and pcv passages, etc.
Porsche learned this the hard way with their first wasserboxer regarding air cooling passages in the block that they decided to use for pcv routing instead. Many, many complaints ensued from the "hurt their baby" crowd and it was fixed by letting the dealership techs go out and rip on your car for a little bit.


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## loudgli (Aug 3, 2005)

*Re: FV-QR ([email protected])*

Im suprised BMW hasn't tried this with there N52 engine customers, coming in with ticking engines. Most of them could be solved by driving the piss out of it for a few minutes. But nope they would rather put new lifters in them. Obviously there may be a tolerance issue with machining but most of the cars that come in are from cars that set long periods or driven short distances.


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## Malaco0219 (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (tdotA3mike)*


_Quote, originally posted by *tdotA3mike* »_
my car is a DD and takes a beating its why i have not lowered her yet <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="http://www.vwvortex.com/vwbb/tongue.gif" BORDER="0"> 


haha i am not that low, just 1 inch drop. but when they don't shovel the streets even at stock ride height you'll have issues


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## [email protected] (Apr 14, 2005)

*Re: FV-QR (loudgli)*


_Quote, originally posted by *loudgli* »_Im suprised BMW hasn't tried this with there N52 engine customers, coming in with ticking engines. Most of them could be solved by driving the piss out of it for a few minutes. But nope they would rather put new lifters in them. Obviously there may be a tolerance issue with machining but most of the cars that come in are from cars that set long periods or driven short distances. 

You mean they are hydraulic lifters that have sat and therefore aren't getting oil to them anymore because the inlet to the lifters are gooped up a bit?
Yeah, sounds like BMW is wasting money or an Italian Tuneup blew some engines before the lifters filled with oil.


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## loudgli (Aug 3, 2005)

*Re: FV-QR ([email protected])*


_Quote, originally posted by *[email protected]* »_
You mean they are hydraulic lifters that have sat and therefore aren't getting oil to them anymore because the inlet to the lifters are gooped up a bit?
Yeah, sounds like BMW is wasting money or an Italian Tuneup blew some engines before the lifters filled with oil.

I dont think they are gooped up. Im just assuming they "bleed" off more than they should. They sound just like the cars that come off the truck from the boat that only have .2 miles on them. Worse than a Piezo Injected motor with the cover off. BMW's and all their high tech junk (This just coming from someone thats been around them tooo long







)


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## LEWXCORE (Jul 7, 2007)

*FV-QR*

seriously. 95% of us on here drive our cars hard enough to never need to do these things. If you're laying into boost and going through a couple gears on the on-ramp or backroads that's enough. I've never seen the words "Italian tune-up" brought up here in the past 3 years and now everyone is blowing their loads about this and driving at 100mph in 4th gear for hours at a time... WTF is going on here LOL.


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## rippie74 (Sep 26, 2007)

*Re: FV-QR (LEWXCORE)*


_Quote, originally posted by *LEWXCORE* »_seriously. 95% of us on here drive our cars hard enough to never need to do these things. If you're laying into boost and going through a couple gears on the on-ramp or backroads that's enough. I've never seen the words "Italian tune-up" brought up here in the past 3 years and now everyone is blowing their loads about this and driving at 100mph in 4th gear for hours at a time... WTF is going on here LOL.

FWIW: I seriously redline my car every single day. I don't worry about build-up on the valves driving like that & having the catch can in place, everythings


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## LEWXCORE (Jul 7, 2007)

*FV-QR*


_Quote, originally posted by *rippie74* »_
FWIW: I seriously redline my car every single day. I don't worry about build-up on the valves driving like that & having the catch can in place, everythings










Ya, I'm not worried about it either... I also do this and skipped the catch can and vent the back of my valve cover to the atmosphere with the front pcv blocked off completely, but still...one guy posting about this "italian tune-up" stuff and now everyone is suddenly flipping their **** about it.


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## blackvento36 (Mar 17, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (LEWXCORE)*


_Quote, originally posted by *LEWXCORE* »_
Ya, I'm not worried about it either... I also do this and skipped the catch can and vent the back of my valve cover to the atmosphere with the front pcv blocked off completely, but still...one guy posting about this "italian tune-up" stuff and now everyone is suddenly flipping their **** about it.
That's this forum's MO............One month it's catch cans, the next it's cam followers, now it's Italian tune ups.......


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## StuMacLean (Aug 9, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (blackvento36)*

Well, there are plenty of horror shots of valves that are caked with oil and crap. 
It seems to me that at least some of these caked valve cars are owned by people who drive the piss out of em once in a while. But they still have caked up valves. 
Assuming that's the case, maybe a "italian tuneup" does something more than a few 0-80mph pulls on the highway (one of my favirote pastimes







).


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

man, idk. i just got back last night from a trip to Atlanta.
I went an average of 102 MPH in 6th gear, and my RPMs were over 3k RPM the entire way.
by the time i got there, my car was pulling SUPER hard and idling amazingly well.
now that im back, its a totally different car. She is peeling through tires like no tomorrow, boosting like a bat out of hell and my engine sounds like a freaking V6 or V8 to my best friend who still doesn't believe me its just a 4 banger. The exhaust note and the vibrations of the engine are just totally different now.
I can now take her all the way to redline with zero hiccups and she doesnt feel choked up anymore above 3k RPMs. 
Im in love again...


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## Krieger (May 5, 2009)

*FV-QR*

btw, here are pics of the carbon and crap that is all over the back of my car. I understand alot of it is fuel, but there are TONS of little chunks of carbon that look like the stuff that gets shot out when i seafoam. The pics dont do it justice. The area on the left side of my car's rear is filthy with black crud and carbon bits.
this was all freshly scrubbed and waxed and polished right before I left... 1100 miles later:


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## DiscoGLI (Jun 29, 2005)

*Re: FV-QR (loudgli)*


_Quote, originally posted by *loudgli* »_Im suprised BMW hasn't tried this with there N52 engine customers, coming in with ticking engines. Most of them could be solved by driving the piss out of it for a few minutes. But nope they would rather put new lifters in them. Obviously there may be a tolerance issue with machining but most of the cars that come in are from cars that set long periods or driven short distances. 

Just did a set of lifters today at the dealership.







Not sure that its from a lack of driving them hard or short distance driving. Usually if thats the case the oil will have moisture in it and look yellow and gloppy. We were putting brand new heads on them until BMW said thats enough and started doing just lifters.


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## INYNN (Apr 14, 2008)

My daily commute is an Italian Tune-Up.


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## Josein06GLI (Jun 29, 2008)

ditto on what INYNN said...


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