Revving to redline: does it strain the engine?

**flakez** · December 17th, 2008 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by niky

Depends. If he starts the car on the show floor merely to rev it, and he's pinging it off the redline on cold oil, it won't be too long before he starts seeing metal confetti coming out with the old oil on oil changes.

usually pinapainit naman niya ung makina, pero he's holding it atleast five seconds on the rev limit.

**CVT** · December 17th, 2008 01:24 PM

I don't do it.... On regular driving, seldom do I hit over 1/2 of the rev limit for our vehicles..... Open road (highway) driving is a different story.....

7101:hooray:

**lazyfoot** · December 18th, 2008 07:45 PM

I agree to most of the post, the engine designers put designed the engines to safely operate up to the redline for a period of time but if for an extended period of time, you're just asking your engine to destroy itself.

I used to reach the redline in my old car but for less than a second or two during acceleration but i never hold it above 5K rpm for a long time. I seldom go above that anymore since my new rides have a higher power output so i already get my desired acceleration rate at 3-4K rpm

**marv25** · December 18th, 2008 07:50 PM

i make it a point never to touch the redline...

**lazyfoot** · December 18th, 2008 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by flakez

usually pinapainit naman niya ung makina, pero he's holding it atleast five seconds on the rev limit.

Don't unless you've used it for more than 15 mins, the oil isn't that well circulated yet, you're just asking for a blown engine.

**owyn** · December 19th, 2008 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by niky

Depends. If he starts the car on the show floor merely to rev it, and he's pinging it off the redline on cold oil, it won't be too long before he starts seeing metal confetti coming out with the old oil on oil changes.

this reinforces what i've read in a few sites (usually oil companies) that up to 75% of engine wear comes from cold starts. Sabagay, most of it has dripped down to the oil pan and it's not even at the right temp.

...'99 civic owner here (hmmm so it'll be a decade old in a few days pala) and while the redline is at 7.5K (IIRC,) I arbitrarily told myself 5.5K or so will be my limit. And yeah that's way more than enough to overtake on an uphill up to tagaytay. The engine doesn't sound so happy up in the lofty RPMs anyway.

Even though most people don't read it ...the book manual has outlined the recommended shift points- the upper and lower km/h of every gear and it's different for the dohc and sohc model, 1.5 and 1.6. Following it the tach needle lands at 2K- 3K. Something must be gleaned from that...

...curiously, those shift points corresponds to that very limited window of jiving wheel speed and engine speed where you can shift- yes move the shifter out of one gear into another- WITHOUT THE CLUTCH! (not that it's recommendable of course.)

**[archie]** · December 19th, 2008 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by niky

Idling "cold" for a few minutes is more damaging than revving it to the redline a few times (given, of course, that the engine doesn't have any problems, to begin with).

are we talking about the cold start as "nagpapainit" in the morning?

hmmm... honda recommends to achieve normal operating temp or wait for the blue light of the temp to turn off before leaving. they say that this would prolong the life of the engine.

how would it be more damaging?

**XTO** · December 19th, 2008 11:00 AM

also during start up why most of the new cars (gas) automatically rev to almost 1.1K RPM for a few secs before returning to sub 1000 RPM? to diesel owners here, do you do it even manually? thanks

**Picard** · December 19th, 2008 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by archie123456789

are we talking about the cold start as "nagpapainit" in the morning?

hmmm... honda recommends to achieve normal operating temp or wait for the blue light of the temp to turn off before leaving. they say that this would prolong the life of the engine.

how would it be more damaging?

Depende din siguro sa kotse. Sa manual ng altis ko, di daw kailangan ng engine warm up. You can go as you start the engine, just don't race/labor the engine habang malamig pa. "Never leave the engine idling for more than 10 mins (cold); 40 mins (warm/normal OP temp).

**XTO** · December 19th, 2008 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Picard

Depende din siguro sa kotse. Sa manual ng altis ko, di daw kailangan ng engine warm up. You can go as you start the engine, just don't race/labor the engine habang malamig pa. "Never leave the engine idling for more than 10 mins (cold); 40 mins (warm/normal OP temp).

agree, dahil fully circulated na oil wala na dapat antayin pa.