How bad is it to hit the redline frequently?

[19jacobob93]

Another nooby question from me

How bad is it to frequently rev a car to the redline or generally give it the boot everywhere you go? What kind of wear can we expect and to what parts if you were to do this all the time?

Personally I idle my car for 30 secs on start up and hardly ever go above 2,000 rpm in general, but sometimes (only when the engine is at OT) I will put my foot into it to overtake a truck or for some other reason. Sometimes it hits the redline (~5,500 rpm) and it gets a bit crude and it makes me cringe haha I don't know how people drive everywhere like this but I know a lot of people do.

When I floor mine I get thick black/brown smoke from the tail pipe which is probably just from fuel as these engines tend to run rich, but I noticed on startup I get a tiny poof of blue smoke for a second which shocked me! What would cause this?

 

[supton]

Blue smoke: valve seals? Probably normal at this age.

Black smoke: fuel. Makes me think something is off, should have low smoke being quite modern. Not expensive bad but something. O2 sensor or the like. But if the mpg isn't bad I wouldn't worry.

Most cars handle this kind of use just fine today. I'd guess the car is half way done, and will go to the junkyard for something other than low compression or worn bearings.

 

[AKhan87]

To answer your question, a well built engine in good condition probably a good thing to redline once daily or once in a while to clear up the "Cobb webbs" (I have no proof if this is true). But no way is it harmful, unless poor engine design which I doubt now a days.

 

[Turk]

It's good to blow the Carbon out once & a while...

But affect on engine??

Go read some Used Oil Analysis reports from "Artem". He frequently floors his cars & runs them at very high RPM's. His wear #'s are very low.....

 

[SteveSRT8]

Had many a high performance engine run to very high mileages despite a lot of track time and/or strip runs. Doesn't seem to hurt a healthy engine at all, may even be beneficial...

 

[Shannow]

An old lady driven car that rarely saw revs, may have a small ridge at the top of the bore.

Rev the freckle off it, and the thinner oil in the bearings coupled with the higher inertial forces can have you hit the "ring ridge" (for want of a better term, it can be deposits, or only an unworn bit of bore), and lead to ring/consumption problems.

That's about the only thing I like having bought a car new, is I know that it's regularly operated at full revs/load reasonably regularly.

 

[19jacobob93]

Hmm seems it isn't exactly a bad thing then! Obviously constant high revs wear piston rings quicker because they are moving more times in the bore, I've seen this on a friends car (Hyundai excel), always revved the a$$ of it to get it moving and it smoked bad even with 15w40 in! They're know for being smokey anyway though haha

I was surprised I saw smoke on mine because it's only done 180k and these engines are know to last over 1,000,000kms without having any internal engine work. I know people who thrash them whilst going years without a service and are hitting well over 400k but I'm guessing theirs would consume a bit of oil!
One reason I might be having smoke is because I'm running 10w30, and I've been advised not to, and go for 10-15w40.

The post by Shannow makes sense about the ridge
Also the post regarding the O2 sensor, I think you're correct there! I've heard that a few times and have been meaning to replace it for a while now. It's still the original one and after 14 years and 180k it's probably not as efficient as it was

 

[Corvette Owner]

In the book" All Corvettes are red", they describe the development test for GM engines. Some of my values could be wrong, but I think GM runs all new engines for around 30 hours at redline. The 1997 Corvette engine was run for about 27 days at redline with no problems!

The 1997 Corvette engine was the first GM car engine designed to go 200,000 miles.

Based on this, I would say that hitting redline is not a bad thing. Now the Corvette has a rpm limiter, not sure all engines have one. Over reving an engine can cause damage. You can always mechanically over rev an engine by downshifting a mechanical transmission too many gears.

 

[yvon_la]

Dont hit the cut off!if you do ,dont sweat it you ll pay for it later!

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: 19jacobob93
Hmm seems it isn't exactly a bad thing then! Obviously constant high revs wear piston rings quicker because they are moving more times in the bore, I've seen this on a friends car (Hyundai excel), always revved the a$$ of it to get it moving and it smoked bad even with 15w40 in! They're know for being smokey anyway though haha

I was surprised I saw smoke on mine because it's only done 180k and these engines are know to last over 1,000,000kms without having any internal engine work. I know people who thrash them whilst going years without a service and are hitting well over 400k but I'm guessing theirs would consume a bit of oil!
One reason I might be having smoke is because I'm running 10w30, and I've been advised not to, and go for 10-15w40.

The post by Shannow makes sense about the ridge


Like anything else in excess there can be problems associated with it. Also people who start the car in the dead of winter drive a few minutes hit WOT to get onto the highway will eventually have problems like you're describing. I have a neighbor who leases cars. Every time she starts or shuts off her engine she floors it. Long before her lease is over her cars are puffing blue smoke, and on occasion she'll complain she has to add oil.

 

[A_Harman]

As long as you wait for the engine to reach operating temperature, running to redline a couple of times a day is not a problem.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: 19jacobob93
Hmm seems it isn't exactly a bad thing then! Obviously constant high revs wear piston rings quicker because they are moving more times in the bore, I've seen this on a friends car (Hyundai excel), always revved the a$$ of it to get it moving and it smoked bad even with 15w40 in! They're know for being smokey anyway though haha

I was surprised I saw smoke on mine because it's only done 180k and these engines are know to last over 1,000,000kms without having any internal engine work. I know people who thrash them whilst going years without a service and are hitting well over 400k but I'm guessing theirs would consume a bit of oil!
One reason I might be having smoke is because I'm running 10w30, and I've been advised not to, and go for 10-15w40.

The post by Shannow makes sense about the ridge


Like anything else in excess there can be problems associated with it. Also people who start the car in the dead of winter drive a few minutes hit WOT to get onto the highway will eventually have problems like you're describing. I have a neighbor who leases cars. Every time she starts or shuts off her engine she floors it. Long before her lease is over her cars are puffing blue smoke, and on occasion she'll complain she has to add oil.


Is this a joke? Why would someone floor there engine when starting and shutting it off?

 

[racin4ds]

Originally Posted By: yvon_la
Dont hit the cut off!if you do ,dont sweat it you ll pay for it later!


uh... no. Haven't you read any of the other replies on this??

Most all newer EFI vehicles have a fuel cutoff as the rev limiter. It doesn't hurt anything to hit it.

 

[stockrex]

Originally Posted By: Turk
It's good to blow the Carbon out once & a while...

But affect on engine??

Go read some Used Oil Analysis reports from "Artem". He frequently floors his cars & runs them at very high RPM's. His wear #'s are very low.....





most of my vehicles are redlined as often as I can, I gently take it up the rpms...

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Corvette Owner
In the book" All Corvettes are red", they describe the development test for GM engines. Some of my values could be wrong, but I think GM runs all new engines for around 30 hours at redline. The 1997 Corvette engine was run for about 27 days at redline with no problems!

The 1997 Corvette engine was the first GM car engine designed to go 200,000 miles.

Based on this, I would say that hitting redline is not a bad thing. Now the Corvette has a rpm limiter, not sure all engines have one. Over reving an engine can cause damage. You can always mechanically over rev an engine by downshifting a mechanical transmission too many gears.


As we learned wit hthe Northstar v8 and it's v6 counterpart ... people that don't drive the vehicle hard have a lot of problems.

 

[johnachak]

Since you normally drive it easily, when you do rev it the black smoke sould be carbon deposits being expelled. If you hit it 2 or 3 times in a row and it's carbon it should lessen with each burst. If it keeps up, she's probably rich. JMHO

 

[johnachak]

I've seen people do it. I worked at a trucking co. That had one driver do that. He said on shutoff, it adds extra charge to the battery and on startup it warms up the engine quicker. Needless to say, he blew a piston rod through the oil pan one cold morning.

 

[rodinator1234]

Not apples to apples but I had a 1992 FZR1000 (Yamaha) and I literally face punched the red line almost every single time I rode the bike. I bought the bike in Germany, stayed there 3 years and shipped it back to Fort Hood. I had lots of autobahn miles and more laps than I could count around the North Loop of the Nurburgring. It had 55k miles on it when I sold it. Never any engine problems. I can not imagine being any harder on a motorcycle that I was on this one. But it was well maintained.

 

[garlicbreadman]

if you have a well engineered and balanced engine, it wont do any damage. I run mine to redline almost every time i drive it and i have not seen any side effects. Engine purrs quietly, less oil consumption and feels even more powerful. <--- you may ask why...running it hard keeps the piston rings from carbon'ing up

 

[yvon_la]

I ll say it one last time,if you hit the cut off you have high chance of breaking your engine.but if you just hit the redline without hitting the cut off?not much should happen if it isnt in its 2 first minute (cold morning for exemple)as for the one saying vehicule now a day often use fuel cut off for cut off?i say :exactly!run an engine at 8000 rpm and then cut the fuel off!yep very healthy for a car.true it used to be worst but its still very damaging.the only reason paul tracy was doing it was because it was quicker.but i doubt any of us would have this issue