Revving to redline: does it strain the engine?

**marv25** · December 14th, 2008 06:43 PM

Honda Civic 2004 M/T
1.6 VTEC3 SOHC

Is it bad to frequently floor the pedal and rev the engine and shift right before redline? More like racing the engine.

Dont get me wrong. I dont do it all the time, and I dont disobey traffic rules. I only do it on long open stretches of road.

Isn't it designed to perform at those engine speeds? Otherwise, the odometer would be only up to 5krpm and redline at 4krpm...

Wala lang. Just wondering. Wala bang masisira under the hood? Does it strain the engine? Aside from the fact na malakas sya sa gas, what are the disadvantages?

Is it true that revving the engine to redline once in a while will actually make it perform better since the carbon accumulated in the engine will be flushed out?

One more question. I actually revved the engine to redline once as in on the redline talaga. I noticed theres a rev limiter and it limits the revs right on the beginning of redline. So anything before the rev limiter is not dangerous to the engine, right?

**[archie]** · December 14th, 2008 08:54 PM

thats the main reason for the engine protect... i mean its ok to max the rev pero hindi madalas coz mas mabilis magwear yung seals coz of the pressure.

hth

**Picard** · December 14th, 2008 09:16 PM

AFAIK, it's still generally safe. But a stock engine is not designed to that kind of stress (revving past 5K) if you do it all the time. Revving up to the redline is done only in emergency cases (e.g. extreme overtaking). It won't hurt the engine big time if only do it once in a while but like what archie123456789 said, it would accelerate normal wear and tear.

Notice weird vibrations on the 5K++ rpm band? A stock car is generally designed to run only 60-70% of it's maximum speed.

**marv25** · December 15th, 2008 07:12 PM

oh okay. i thought kasi since vtec equipped engines are rev happy and are designed to perform at high rpms, meaning ok lang sya at 5k up rpms...

**roberto_minosa** · December 15th, 2008 10:16 PM

It's ok but don't do it daily!!! Maybe twice a week is fine enough:D...they put a redline in there for a reason...so relax as long as you got a working tach...

**niky** · December 15th, 2008 10:19 PM

Hitting the rev limiter itself is not dangerous... it's there to protect your engine. The rev limit means that the manufacturer has deemed that this is the highest rpm that your engine can safely survive and still last a long time. Most modern engines can actually survive up to 500 or 1000 rpm beyond their redline, actually, but at that point, the valve train and connecting rods become unduly stressed and may fail prematurely.

Holding the engine at redline, though, for extended periods of time, is a good way of destroying it, without question. Know a couple of people who have done that on the racetrack (and even the street), and some of those engines were Hondas, too.

**marv25** · December 15th, 2008 10:42 PM

hmm so what do you advise? should i set an even lower limit for my rpms if i do decide to floor it? I shift right before redline, but i make it a point not to hit redline. Should i shift earlier?

and i have another question. This car isn't only used by me. in fact, since it was bought, i dont normaly drive this car until just recently. The other person who drives this car drives it very conservatively (shifting before 2000rpm). And suddenly when i sit on the drivers seat, i keep flooring it. In fact, the first time that this car was ever ran up to redline was just not too long ago only when i started driving it. So there are times the car is run very conservatively and sometimes very hard. Is that bad? Like in the morning it's driven smoothly, and later during the day, I use it and it's driven hard... I dont know but does the car have something like "kasanayan"... maybe the car's used to smooth driving or what?

**niky** · December 16th, 2008 12:50 AM

A car's engine takes time to break in. It'll be making best power after about 20,000-40,000 kilometers or so... after that, it's downhill. How much power it makes at that point depends on how it's driven. You need to rev it to break it in... but within limits. An occassional blast to redline isn't harmful per se... it'll increase wear, but everything wears down the engine. 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).

You should be okay if you're only revving to overtake. It's extended periods of high-revving (as in bouncing off the limiter for minutes on end around a racetrack) that's dangerous. Most engines can take the mild abuse of "spirited" driving as long as they're well mantained.

**4agze** · December 16th, 2008 03:48 AM

i dont think its bad but remember even racing engine blows up and they only use that motor 2 or 3 races. if you put the proper parts like oil cooler better oil pump and better oil then revving high wont be too bad, i do stretch my cars muscle every oil change.

**marv25** · December 16th, 2008 05:42 AM

does breaking in strictly depend on the mileage? Im in cebu where everywhere is near... so the car was bought last november 2004. Now it's been 4 years and it only has 27400+ on the odo.

so i have nothing to worry about when flooring it? nothing will happen like minor things like the belt snapping, or the aircon compressor burning out coz of the really high revs... I floor it with the aircon on by the way...