Is it bad to redline?

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Obsidianice
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Post by Obsidianice »

Redlining the car in and of itself won't kill your engine...Most cars especially conservative redlines. My car has a 6500 rev limit, but will happily rev to 7200 all day long. The average car can and will rev mechanically be able to rev at least a couple hundred and usually several hundred hundred rpm past red with no problem. If only for the fact that sheer momentum will go over. Becaused the redline says 6500 doesn't always there? WHen shifting my car at 6500 RPM I'll often see it read 6600 RPM on the SAFC. THere's definitely a safefty area built in. But obviously it will cause more wear and tear which can do your engine in sooner that normal driving will. At that point it really depends on the build quality of the motor and if it's properly maintained. So in other words...feel free to wind it out, just take care of it, but don't be shocked if something does break :lol: but don't expect it to.
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mulvihill
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Post by mulvihill »

if the engine explodes or you bust something inside will the car just coast to a stop or ... what will happen?
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Obsidianice
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Post by Obsidianice »

mulvihill wrote:if the engine explodes or you bust something inside will the car just coast to a stop or ... what will happen?
If the engine busts..to be honest..very little happens. Heck you can break a rod and still drive. So you will most likely just coast to a stop..It's when other parts break within the drive line that the car will do crazy things, like a CV going while moving at speed.
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jory543
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Post by jory543 »

My engine loses all it's steam by 5500 RPM's so I hardly ever bring it above 5200. The redline on the tach is at 6k and that's where the rev limiter is also. The engine is all about low end torque anyway. It would have more high end power if I was running a manual ECU, right now I have an automatic computer. The manual computer would also let it rev higher before cutting off fuel.
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Post by JRicoCTG »

my car redlines at almost 7000......i tihnk. i dont go up that high too much, so im not certain. but it starts loosing power....well the little power it has at about 5000. so no need for me to go any higher.

someone should take one for the team and downshift over the rev limiter with an old POS car. make a video. it would be interesting.
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Post by screenname »

JRicoCTG wrote:someone should take one for the team and downshift over the rev limiter with an old POS car. make a video. it would be interesting.
How about one with an Acura RSX Type-S? It's a repost, but it's still pretty entertaining to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx4wYE-0ubA
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Post by eaglecatcher »

hahahahaha. That sucks. I'm careful with my shifting. If I'm not sure that its in the right gate, I won't let the clutch out. It could still happen, but that would suck.
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Post by Obsidianice »

JRicoCTG wrote:my car redlines at almost 7000......i tihnk. i dont go up that high too much, so im not certain. but it starts loosing power....well the little power it has at about 5000. so no need for me to go any higher.

someone should take one for the team and downshift over the rev limiter with an old POS car. make a video. it would be interesting.
I've done it...it's not fun, the rdline on my car is 6500. It only went to 7500 on the missed shift though. On my car that's still within liveable range thankfully. Much more than that it would have been very bad though :shock:
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Post by mesaboogie18 »

On the highway the other day I was shifting from 4th to 5th and accidentally put it in 3rd. It didn't over rev, it just was like regular downshifting. I thought something was funny when I shifted "up" and started accelerating faster and my engine was louder.
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Post by wychwood »

The highest RPMs I've reached on my car is about 3500 in 5th gear. I can't even imagine reachin' redline. If I did, I'm sure my little Hyundai Accent would totally crack up into little itsy pieces. I personally hate the sound the engine makes when I rev too high in any gear. I rarely go above 2500 in 1st & 2nd. Occasionally in 3 or 4th I'll take it 3000 for smoother shifts. In top gear (5th) I cruise on the highway at 3000.
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Post by Oldladykiller »

i guess it depends on the engine. but i wouldnt worry about taking it to the redline at all. just dont mis shift at redline or go past it that much.
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Post by hai1206vn »

Obsidianice wrote:
mulvihill wrote:if the engine explodes or you bust something inside will the car just coast to a stop or ... what will happen?
If the engine busts..to be honest..very little happens. Heck you can break a rod and still drive. So you will most likely just coast to a stop..It's when other parts break within the drive line that the car will do crazy things, like a CV going while moving at speed.
Most of the broken parts will stay within the block, so I guess you won't see a lot of damage to other parts. When the engine explodes, it'll be like putting your car in neutral and turning the key off. No torque moving the car, no brake booster, no power steering. The only difference is visual.
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Post by Badmojo »

General consensus on the RX-8 forum is that if you aren't redlining these cars once a day, you're probably accumulating carbon deposits. In fact, the cars with automatic transmissions seem to suffer more engine problems because their owners tend not to drive them as hard as the manuals. Whether you'd want to apply this same logic to a piston engine, I don't know. When I had my 4-cylinder Mazda3 the engine always sounded like it wanted to esplode any time I got near redline. I guess there's more stuff to go wrong... valves, cams, cranks, etc.
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Post by eaglecatcher »

I shift about 4200 for max performance,because I don't get any hp once I'm in the 4k range, so its best for me to shift then, plus I land in a decent spot in the next gear, so it all works out.
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Post by hai1206vn »

eaglecatcher wrote:I shift about 4200 for max performance,because I don't get any hp once I'm in the 4k range, so its best for me to shift then, plus I land in a decent spot in the next gear, so it all works out.
Don't know about your engine and tranny, 4k might be a bit early. Sure the torque there is falling, but power may still be before its peak.
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