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I say its almost never okay to do it continuously and constantly, something WILL break. It's also not a good idea to not do it for a long time then all of a sudden do it.
I also believe you should not redline old engines 120k+miles, especially if you haven't been good about fixing oil leaks. If you have oil leaks your just a few redlines from a blown head gasket.
Huh?? These are two totally unrelated issues. The previous sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Or maybe there is something I don't know despite having owned an automotive repair business for 35 years, and having been a stock car racer for 16 years -- building my own engines -- and which stock car racing career culminated in a track championship in 2008.
If an oil leak causes an engine to run out of oil the ensuing problem will be a rod or main bearing failure as opposed to head gasket failure.
Don in Austin
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyAMG
I-6s are the worst. Every one of the 3 blown head gaskets I have had were I-6 engine cars. I believe it is the reason you don't see too many I-6s anymore.
I stopped redlining and driving aggressively 6 years ago. I really have seen a decrease in maintenance costs.
Huh?? These are two totally unrelated issues. The previous sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Or maybe there is something I don't know despite having owned an automotive repair business for 35 years, and having been a stock car racer for 16 years -- building my own engines -- and which stock car racing career culminated in a track championship in 2008.
If an oil leak causes an engine to run out of oil the ensuing problem will be a rod or main bearing failure as opposed to head gasket failure.
Don in Austin
Yep. Always a main and sometimes depending on engine oil flow and design a cam bearing.
Yep. Always a main and sometimes depending on engine oil flow and design a cam bearing.
I always thought of the big end rod bearings as being the first thing to go on a loss of oil pressure, but, I don't have much experience running engines dry of oil so don't really have any first-hand experience.
I do know that on a loss of oil pressure or on cold start-up before oil pressure builds, I can generally hear what I have always thought was the big ends of the rods knocking a little.
But, yeah, I don't see any relation between oil leaks, high rpm/high power running, and head gaskets blowing.
Head gaskets in my experience only fail on engines where the block and head are the same metal if overheated.
On engines with different metals, usually iron block aluminum head, due to differential expansion the head gasket eventually fails due to wear. It's more about heat-up and cool-down cycles than miles, but typically these will go 100 to 300K miles on a gasket.
Redlining your engine is good for it, it helps to blow out the cobwebs and carbon deposits. At least once a week while the car is sitting still you should step on the gas and run it all the way to the top of the redline and hold it there for a minute
I say its almost never okay to do it continuously and constantly, something WILL break. It's also not a good idea to not do it for a long time then all of a sudden do it.
I also believe you should not redline old engines 120k+miles, especially if you haven't been good about fixing oil leaks. If you have oil leaks your just a few redlines from a blown head gasket.
I-6s are the worst. Every one of the 3 blown head gaskets I have had were I-6 engine cars. I believe it is the reason you don't see too many I-6s anymore.
I stopped redlining and driving aggressively 6 years ago. I really have seen a decrease in maintenance costs.
First of all, there's nothing about redlining a car that is inherently bad for it. Constantly putting it under load is going to cause a lot more issues. Of course, the two are related in the sense that some people put it under load all the way to redline -- that's basically what "flooring it" is -- but you're going to wear out a motor a lot quicker if you're constantly mashing the pedal even if it's just up to 4K RPM than if you're loafing around near the redline in 3rd gear all day.
As for the I-6 issue, there's nothing inherently flawed about an I-6 that would cause head gasket problems. Toyota's I-6 was known to have head gasket problems, especially early turbocharged versions. But that had nothing to do with it being an I-6. The reason why you don't see many I-6's any more is because the length of the block makes them more difficult to package.
I always thought of the big end rod bearings as being the first thing to go on a loss of oil pressure, but, I don't have much experience running engines dry of oil so don't really have any first-hand experience.
I do know that on a loss of oil pressure or on cold start-up before oil pressure builds, I can generally hear what I have always thought was the big ends of the rods knocking a little.
But, yeah, I don't see any relation between oil leaks, high rpm/high power running, and head gaskets blowing.
Head gaskets in my experience only fail on engines where the block and head are the same metal if overheated.
On engines with different metals, usually iron block aluminum head, due to differential expansion the head gasket eventually fails due to wear. It's more about heat-up and cool-down cycles than miles, but typically these will go 100 to 300K miles on a gasket.
My LT1 had a cast iron block and aluminum heads. Sold it at 170K miles running like a top. I have heard of 200K+ mile LT1's without head issues.
I do not think the cam bearings all-out fail. I believe their failure is more insidious, when oil issues are involved. Outright immediate fail is the mains.
Huh?? These are two totally unrelated issues. The previous sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Or maybe there is something I don't know despite having owned an automotive repair business for 35 years, and having been a stock car racer for 16 years -- building my own engines -- and which stock car racing career culminated in a track championship in 2008.
If an oil leak causes an engine to run out of oil the ensuing problem will be a rod or main bearing failure as opposed to head gasket failure.
Don in Austin
True enough. My '03 F150 has a rear main seal leak. The next time a 4000 RPM punch causes an issue of any sort on that 4.2L v6 will be the first.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wpme
Redlining your engine is good for it, it helps to blow out the cobwebs and carbon deposits. At least once a week while the car is sitting still you should step on the gas and run it all the way to the top of the redline and hold it there for a minute
Well, yeah...except that the neutral rev limiter is around 3500 RPMs in most vehicles, which is hardly redlining it. Most older engines don't have the top end breathing to do much of anything at redline, to boot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lewdog_5
So what is the consensus? Should I be doing this with my car consistently and what is consistently?
Whatever you feel like. It's your vehicle. You know how everyone here says that you need to have a manual transmission to "be one" with your vehicle (garbage, most certainly, but hang with me here), well, you should "be one" and know your vehicle no matter what style trans it has, anyway.
Do not do this frequently as it causes higher stresses to the engine, which causes premature wear.
The rev limiter should prevent any catastrophic failure, any modern production engine I can think of has a rev limiter. In its simplest for, this works by cutting ignition to one or more cylinders to cut the power.
Think about what is happening inside your engine at high revs. At 6,000rpm the crank is turning 6,000 times per minute, or 100 times per second, churning up the oil like a blender making a milkshake. Of course, the additive packages in oil include an agent to reduce foaming of the oil, but in addition to the mechanical stresses the lubrication system is operating at its design limit.
Fine for short periods of time every now and again, but not all the time.
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Most older engines don't have the top end breathing to do much of anything at redline, to boot.
