It is a "novice" question, but that's the whole point of this forum - to educate and help fellow enthusiasts.

The rev limiter does help prevent damage from over-revving the engine when you are accelerating. Basically, at a certain RPM (it's been debated to be between 9k and 9.2k RPM) the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) cuts fuel to each injector thus preventing the engine from revving any higher.

However, if you are accelerating at 95 mph in 3rd gear (near 9k RPM) and attempt to shift into 4th but go into 2nd instead, the engine will attempt to spin much faster than redline when the clutch pedal is released. This is known as a mechanical over-rev and cannot be easily prevented automatically in cars with a manual gearbox. If you react quickly and depress the clutch pedal, disengaging the mechanical link betwen the engine and drivetrain, you may be able to prevent damage. It has been reported that very brief, mild over-revs can be tolerated by the F20C, but longer operation at excessive revolutions will definitely float one or more valves resulting in their contact with the top of the piston. That is a bad thing!

HTH

 

Ya, i was kinda wondering, with the dreaded shift miss, ya know, hitting Red-line in neutual, no load.... cwhat and if kinda damage can this do?

 

At what engine speed does a mechanical over-rev start to cause possible problems in the F20C?

 

First i want to say is that vielside if you overreved=shifted into the wrong gear, do a compression check. That will tell you alot. As for what rpms does damage occur in a f20c im not sure, but on the 04 models with the 8k rpm redline think about it this way. Theres twice as much stress at 9k than there is at 8k.

 

guys, I didn't overrev, I was just curious because I almost had and didn't know what damage might be evident from daily driving. The motor is gone in favor of a spoon blueprinted and balanced motor now, so it doesn't really matter... I made this post in March of 2003, so obviously if I had overreved, I would have taken care of it by now. If you want to leave info for people to search, then cool, but my car has no mechanical problems... just wanted to clarify...