I was driving and coming off a curve and the car in front of me was going a bit too slow for my taste so while in 2nd gear I hit the gas but I didn't pay attention and I redlined my TSX I only noticed it because it jerked a bit then I switched gears but my question is if that’s bad it was only for a second and this is the only time I have done it.

 

No you should be ok. You hit the fuel cutoff which is designed to cut the fuel off before the engine goes beyond its mechanical limits. Now if you were to down shift and the engine mechanically went over this rpm then that would be bad as there is no cutoff to stop this. So you're fine. But i wouldn't make a habit out of it.

 

x2

 

I hate that feeling. I have done it a few times in my car, always freaks me out.

 

I'm curious as to how bad it is to keep the engine rpm's very high for long periods of time. For example if you watch youtube videos there is a series of videos showing some professional japanese drivers testing out different honda cars on the track. These guys have the engine near redline the entire time. I understand that peak power is at 6800 rpm for the tsx. But i wonder how bad is this for the engine to be screaming that high? From the engine's perspective is it just like normal operation? Or is it really beating on the engine harshly?

Don't get me wrong of course this would wear fut the engine if driven like this everyday all the time. Simple physics says that mechanical components break down over time, and the more the faster things wear out. But since i keep my rpm's below 3500rpm for 99% of my driving, i really feel like its killing it when i do happen to take it up to 6 or 7k rpm's.

 

Keeping the engine near redline for extended periods of time produces extreme amounts of heat that can cause alot of problems including but certainly not limited to temper embrittlement, thermal and mechanical fatigue, and stress cracking, all of which can manifest themselves catastrophically in your engine. It's just not designed to cool itself well enough to support that amount of heat.

Taking your engine up to 7,000 on a daily basis won't hurt it as long as you allow it to cool and don't keep it there for any amount of time. Don't sit on the cut-off or drive 80mph in 3rd gear and you'll be fine.

 

Thanks guys I never done that before and it kind of freaked me out a bit but I figured one time would not hurt the engine and just wanted to double check.

 

I see so i wonder if those people racing these cars on the track do anything special to prepare the engine for that abuse. It seems that they are running the cars stock for the most part. Its probably ok to drive like that for only 3 laps or so but then the car needs to take a break for a bit.

 

i think they put in thicker oil... but thats as far as i know. Oh and brakefluid/brakelines

 

Redlining is not going to cause your engine to explode or wear out faster. There's a rev limiter for a reason, to keep the RPMs within a safe limit. Even when racing the engines aren't constantly bouncing off the rev limiter, the car is always accelerating and decelerating. The same with driving at higher RPM's, its perfectly safe as long as you're not doing it for hours.

Redlining the engine while cold could cause damage, but I wouldn't worry about it during everyday use.

 

well that's just it. these professional racers on youtube do 3 laps around the track and the engine is redlined the entire time. now granted that's only 3 laps because they were just testing the new cars. but they seem to keep the car at redline/peak power the entire time.

 

Constant redlining is not recommended. Even though the car has a rev limiter, redlining still promotes wear and tear over and beyond "normal use".

 

Yes, but it's not going to destroy your engine catastrophically like people are making it sound. I'm not saying to go around cruising at 7000rpm, but taking it up to redline sometimes isn't going to reduce engine life to a degree worth worrying about.

 

 

Completely agree with this guy. Honda/Acura engines only make HP at high RPM and they are desgined for high RPM performance (so to speak). Why else would these racers keep their RPM's so high is because that's where the power is (ask any S2000 owners). No one races at 2k-4k rpm unless you have a European car that has a lot of torque low end. If I remember correctly, Vtec doesn't even kick in until 4-5k, lol. The higher the rev, the happier the car, don't worry about it.. the engine is not made of paper.

 

Keeping your engine between 6 and 7 thousand RPM is fine unless you're keeping it there for an hour or something dumb like that. A few laps around the track on the weekend is perfecly safe for your engine (relatively safe for the driver). Even though your engine is designed to handle 7,000 RPM, it's not designed for normal operation at that RPM. Your engine won't explode if you hit the cutoff occationally, but if you make a habit of driving at 6,000+ RPM, you're going to have to increase your normal maintenance and shouldn't expect to see 250,000+ miles out of it. There's a big difference between hitting vtec comming out of a turn or off a light, and driving down the interstate at 6800 RPM because it's in the powerband.

 

I drove my 04 6MT pretty hard, at times "hit" redlines as I shift up (7400rpm, right before fuel cuts off). Hondas are pretty durable, and hitting it sometimes isn't going to kill it As long as you don't keep bouncing off the rev-limiter, I wouldn't worry about the occasional fun. I had 70k trouble-free miles on the engine.

 

My experience with the K-series engines is that if you hit redline momentarily, you'll be fine. Just don't keep the engine bouncing off the rev limiter as the weak spots on the stock engine when doing so are the timing chain tensioner and roller rockers (I've had my fair share of siezed roller rockers in my racing career).