Evening.

I have a question about revving the engine to its limit. My dad has an S2000 which he takes a lot of pride in owning, but he doesn't want to rev it to the redline because he thinks it will wear it out and stop it feeling like new, make parts break quicker and so on. He also won't rev it very highly in first gear at all either, because of the belief that everything [the gearbox] is turning faster in first, so it again is more likely to wear. I know that the majority of users on this forum redline it on a daily basis, but how justified are my dad's opinions on this?

 

Depends on the conditions I suppose - if the car's cold then he's right not to rag it, but once the car is warm there are no issues with revving it to the redline - it's designed to be that way after all!

There are a few 100,000+ milers on here which have been driven in such a way all their life so tell him not to worry and start driving it properly

 

Yeah after its warmed up tell him to drive it like he stole it.

 

Odd post for 3 in the morning!

the s2000 is slow and relatively dull unless you rev it to the line!

That said if you are not in the mood then keeping it below 6000 rpm makes for a nice gentle ride.

Your dad certainly will not do the car any serious harm by revving it to the line but overall if you give ANY a car a hard time it will reduce it's lifespan.

 

So long as the oil is up to temperature, and level is checked on a regular basis he won't have any problems revving the engine up to the redline.

Honda know what they are doing when it comes to building/designing engines

 

It's actually beneficial to drive it like that occasionally. Putting the engine under full load gives a better burn during combustion and gets the temperatures higher around the valves, increases gas flow through the induction system and throught the exhaust system.

All of this helps clean the engine up, burn carbon deposits away generally improve the engines overall condition.

 

with the above.

One thing your dad shouldn't do if possible is hit the rev limiter, it's not an ideal situation for the engine (it does sound good though )

Rick

 

Tell him that the red line (as indicated as well!) is at 9000rpm, NOT at 6/7000rpm. If it were not good for the engine then the red line wouldn't be so high, this is the whole point of redlines in cars. The engine is designed to rev this high etc.

Obv keeping it calm whilst cold etc. is a good thing.

An oil temp gauge(or even lights on the rev range like bmw M series to tell you how many revs you can use) would be good in the S, water temp isn't sufficient enough to tell you the engine is 'ready'.

 

Ask him next time to explain why he owns an S2000 and not an MX-5? when he answers "because it's faster" you can remind him that it's not unless it's in VTEC which is between 6k - 9k RPM.

In saying that my Dad drives the new XKR and drives it like a Rover 75 perhaps he's just an old codger?

 

I fitted some Defi gauges for oil temp and oil pressure for that very reason.