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How bad is it to hit the rev limiter?

S

SickBeast

Lifer
So I was trying to merge into highway traffic today in my Civic when a guy decided to be a dick and slam on the gas from about 300' behind me instead of letting me in. I had the option to either slam on my brakes or floor it in 2nd gear, so I chose the latter option.

Unfortunately, I went past my redline and hit the rev limiter. It was a strange sensation. The motor completely stopped working for a second or two, and then I popped it into 5th and carried on just fine.

Did I do any sort of damage to my engine or transmission by doing this?

TIA
 
If you felt a power cut-out, that's a fuel cut to save your engine from going bye bye. It's there to prevent people from killing their engines. You're fine.
 
zerocool84 said:
If you felt a power cut-out, that's a fuel cut to save your engine from going bye bye. It's there to prevent people from killing their engines. You're fine.
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That's what I thought, thanks. 🙂

I actually feel like my car has *more* power now. I just did some reading and a apparently an "Italian tune-up" consists of running the car just below its redline for a couple of minutes. Apparently it burns all the crap outta your motor. 😱
 
SickBeast said:
That's what I thought, thanks. 🙂

I actually feel like my car has *more* power now. I just did some reading and a apparently an "Italian tune-up" consists of running the car just below its redline for a couple of minutes. Apparently it burns all the crap outta your motor. 😱
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It's most likely in your head, when something happens to your car you often look for changes that really aren't there. It's why ricers can convince themselves they got an extra 20 hp out of their 120 hp car through a K&N filter and a fart can exhaust, they expect that they are making more power so that's what they end up thinking. Either that or you're no longer scared to rev your civic within an inch of its life. :awe:
 
Yep as long as you aren't constantly bouncing off it and the car has no current other issues I wouldn't worry about it. It's there so you don't hurt it with plenty of "safety factor" figured in. And yeah if it usually never see's above 3k rpm, it probably cleaned some carbon deposits out.
 
amdhunter said:
My rev-limiter kicks in at about 9100rpm. I love it. 🙂
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Mine's somewhere around 7000rpm, but it achieves peak horsepower at 6300rpm so it's pointless to go higher than that. You can feel the power taper off a bit as you approach the redline.

On my car the VTEC kicks in at 4500rpm, so if you want to go fast, you try to keep the revs between 4500rpm and 6300rpm.
 
A rev limiter is neat. The engine sort of bounces around the rev limit, but shows no sign of cutting off. You know immediately that it's the limiter and that the engine will not cut off or be damaged.
 
SickBeast said:
Mine's somewhere around 7000rpm, but it achieves peak horsepower at 6300rpm so it's pointless to go higher than that. You can feel the power taper off a bit as you approach the redline.

On my car the VTEC kicks in at 4500rpm, so if you want to go fast, you try to keep the revs between 4500rpm and 6300rpm.
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You'll probably need to rev past your peak power point in order to stay within your optimal powerband when you shift. Not that it matters for typical driving... 😛
 
just fyi it can be harmful if you downshift into any gear from a high enough speed, sending your revs past redline. fuel cutoff will not help you then and you may damage your engine. one usually notices this before you let the clutch all the way out though. always know the max speed for any gear.

8300rpm in my car...thinking of getting flashpro that will increase it to 8600 and reduce vtec engagement to 4000
 
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vshah said:
just fyi it can be harmful if you downshift into any gear from a high enough speed, sending your revs past redline. fuel cutoff will not help you then and you may damage your engine. one usually notices this before you let the clutch all the way out though. always know the max speed for any gear.

8300rpm in my car...thinking of getting flashpro that will increase it to 8600 and reduce vtec engagement to 4000
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This. Dropping down a gear at too high a speed will over rev it and you can end up with bent valves or worse... 🙁
 
SickBeast said:
That's what I thought, thanks. 🙂

I actually feel like my car has *more* power now. I just did some reading and a apparently an "Italian tune-up" consists of running the car just below its redline for a couple of minutes. Apparently it burns all the crap outta your motor. 😱
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lol
Bignate603 said:
It's most likely in your head, when something happens to your car you often look for changes that really aren't there. It's why ricers can convince themselves they got an extra 20 hp out of their 120 hp car through a K&N filter and a fart can exhaust, they expect that they are making more power so that's what they end up thinking. Either that or you're no longer scared to rev your civic within an inch of its life. :awe:
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this
Throckmorton said:
The "Italian tuneup" is supposed to clear out the injectors so maybe you did gain some power.
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lol again

I rev mine to 7500 and it's a stupid pushrod motor. If I had better valve springs i'd go a little more, maybe to 8000-8500.
 
PlasmaBomb said:
Literally... don't Honda pride themselves on doing a 24 hour redline test on all their engines?
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Actually, every engine in production from every manufacturer is run that way. Wide-open throttle for days on end.

It's how you find out that some cars will run out of gas in 12 minutes if kept at wide-open =).
 
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