hey guys, i havent been vtec-ing on my S for a while. i rarely go on vtec becuz gas money is just killingggg mee. and i've been getting around 24mpg with almost no vtec.. i use vtec maybe.. once a month? twice a month?? is that bad for the car?? i usually just keep it under 4~5k rpm

 

In my opinion, you should at least hit 6500 RPM once a day or so just to keep everything in 100% working order.

(or it might not have any affect at all not hitting 6K but once a month... but I would bet that it is good for the motor to use those other cam lobes more than once every month)

 

[QUOTE=tripleblackS2K,Mar 1 2005, 12:31 AM]In my opinion,

 

yes it does damage the engine...

not being able to let everything run up to a good speed will slowly deteriorate the engine.

this is the same kinda of problem bikers have. they just pass their test and buy a huge 800cc engine and have to have it limited because they are not old enough to have the full capacity of the engine yet. slowly but shurly carbon deposits start to sit in on the liner and start to "bog" the engine down.

the engines NEED revving hard so it can flush everything out.

im pretty sure that is correct but if not pls correct me

 

just hit vtec enough..... but not too much... wth

 

thinking about this a bit more.....

sell your S and buy a civic that wont eat fuel!

the S is a SPORTS CAR it will eat petrol (gas in the states) thats one of the things you have to realise when you buy the thing!

seriously though if money is that much of a problem i would not advice having the car

 

I VTEC quite a bit around town and usually get at least 20 MPG. So you

 

When do you guys shift? I used to shift at lower rpm, but I find it that the car responds a lot better when I let it rev up a little bit to around 5-5500 rpm...

 

yea, if your that worried about saving a few buck on each tank of gas, im not sure the S is for u! it is a "sports" car, its not going to get the best gas milage ever.

my civic gets around 40mpg...i love it! u can drive forever on a tank of gas! hehe!

 

Mine's an '04 model. In relatively slow moving traffic, I'll shift between 3000 and 3500 rpms. If it's "really" slow, I'll sometimes shift as low as 2500 rpms.

Normally though, 3500 is a minimum and anything between 3500 and 4000 produces, for me, very satisfying results. When traffic is light and I'm feeling playful, anything up to VTEC works and I love the sound of the engine in that range.

So when do I VTEC? Mainly on freeway on-ramps (traffic permitting) as well as passing on two lane roads. Not that I necessarily need to in these situations, it's just that I can!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

PS: Oh yeah, to answer the original question. I agree that it's generally a good idea to "blow it out" every once in a while, especially on a high performance engine. But it's not the end of the world if you don't. Modern engines run a LOT cleaner than they did years ago when carbon build up was "really" an issue. Drive the car the way you want to. As long as you're not having any drivability or other performance issues, I wouldn't worry about it. And from a strictly mechanical point of view, you won't hurt a thing if you "don't" go into VTEC!