Is it bad to redline?

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mesaboogie18
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Is it bad to redline?

Post by mesaboogie18 »

Well is it? Now that I have complete control over when my tranny shifts I sometimes get the urge to rev it up pretty high b/c my old car was an automatic coupled to a 3.1L OHV V6 that wasn't rev happy at all. My new car however has no problem revving up to it's 6500RPM redline. I've never taken it all the way to 6500 but I have on some occasions taken it to 6000RPMs in 1st and 2nd gear. Is it bad to rev your engine that high? I normally shift at 4000RPMs in 1st b/c of the lack of torque and between 2500-3000RPMs for 2nd-5th gear. My car has a 2.0L DOHC I-4 with Variable Valve Timing and makes most of it's power at the high end of the tach. B/c of this I usually have to rev it up pretty good to go anywhere with some scoot. I know that it's bad to redline your engine all the time cause my buddy did that with his eclipse and threw a bearing in it. But what about every once in a while?
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Post by Prodigal Son »

There is a reason the line is red.

Like people, machines have their limits.

Like people, machines can be pushed to their limits and survive.

Like people, machines that are pushed to their limits on a regular basis tend to have shorter life spans.

Unlike people, machines cannot heal small injuries. They just accumulate until the point of failure.
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Post by jomotopia »

^^what he said.

i redline 2nd and 3rd whenever i get a stretch with no traffic in front of me, about once or twice per drive. i'm not worried. as long as the engine is properly maintained it shouldn't be a problem.
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Post by subzero »

i hit redline in 2nd everyday. this is only like 2 times a day though
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Post by jomotopia »

just to give you a real world example: i had a 99 AT corolla. i bought it with about 20k miles on it. it didn't have much power at all so i floored it almost every time i touched the gas. when it was floored, it would run up to redline (or almost) before shifting. i put over 100k additional miles on it driving this way and the engine is still going strong. the auto tranny is more likely to be hurt from that than the engine (but it's still going well too), which of course isn't an issue with an MT.
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Post by dklkse »

I never run my car up to redline. It starts to lay over way before that.
I consider running to redline, essentially moving out of the power band... unless of course you drive a car that thrives on high RPMs (ie Civic Si; Corolla XRS).
But that's just my take.
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Post by subzero »

sometimes if im feeling a little spicy to get to the next light i just stay in the powerband so i dont fall into the "dead-zone" upon shifting. 8)
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Post by eaglecatcher »

I like revving my not so quick mustang to like 4.5k before shifting out of 2nd. Its quite a rush. haha
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Post by JackBauer »

Hey eagle, is that the 94/95 5 liter i see on our avatar?
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Post by eaglecatcher »

nope, that is indeed my very own 98 3.8L
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Post by vios »

Running at sustained high revs will increase the wear and tear of the engine. Occasionally touching the redline will probably not cause significant wear and tear. And old timers will probably advise you that occasionally running the engine at high revs may be beneficial, as it can remove unburnt carbon deposits (the "Italian tune up").

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Post by Tinton »

Doesn't it put more wear on the rings on the pistons to rev it up high a lot? And wouldn't that just cause it to burn more oil and maybe lose some compression?

While on the subject of redlines, when is it not as harmful to go beyond redline? My Dad says that its fine to not go too far above redline if you're not under power (ie, you downshift and the car revs above redline for a couple seconds or so).
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Post by VTECaddict »

Tinton wrote:Doesn't it put more wear on the rings on the pistons to rev it up high a lot? And wouldn't that just cause it to burn more oil and maybe lose some compression?

While on the subject of redlines, when is it not as harmful to go beyond redline? My Dad says that its fine to not go too far above redline if you're not under power (ie, you downshift and the car revs above redline for a couple seconds or so).
depends on how far past redline. the actual redline is like the car telling "OK, ease off now, i'm almost at my limit". then theres the rev-limiter usually a few hundred RPM above redline which is like the car saying "OK, f*cker, i'm gonna explode if you rev me any higher so i'm cutting your fuel off!"

that's when youre under power. if you're not under power (like when you downshift too far), the computer has no way to stop the engine from spinning past the rev limiter, so you can potentially grenade your engine if you go past the rev limiter when downshifting. so basically its safer to go past redline under power because you will just hit the rev limiter and the computer wont let it rev any higher.
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Post by Red_tsx »

Like said before it is ok to redline but you shouldn't do it constently ina new car because you need to do the engine break in so later you can have a stronger engine.
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Post by eaglecatcher »

Tinton wrote:Doesn't it put more wear on the rings on the pistons to rev it up high a lot? And wouldn't that just cause it to burn more oil and maybe lose some compression?

While on the subject of redlines, when is it not as harmful to go beyond redline? My Dad says that its fine to not go too far above redline if you're not under power (ie, you downshift and the car revs above redline for a couple seconds or so).
I think its actually more harmful to downshift and make it go above redline, than it is to bang it off the rev limiter, thats because the rev limiter can cut you off before you kill it, if you over rev, theres nothing keeping the wheels from turning the engine so fast that you throw a rod or something. I haven't taken my up to the rev limiter, but I've gotten about 300rpm away from redline a couple times.
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