Redlining An Engine

[scotthunter]

I'm curious to know if I'm doing my engine any harm to red line it once in a while? I find that when dropping down into second gear to overtake on the lanes the revs rapidly head towards the 6000 rpm mark before I shift up to third shortly followed by fourth. I only do this occasionally and only when the engine's well warmed up. Most of the time I drive economically and change up according to the green arrows on the dash, usually averaging 40-48 mpg.

I drive a well serviced Fiesta Zetec S 120 Petrol. It's just had it's 10,000 mile service at a Ford garage and has good quality Castrol GTX oil in the engine.

I have heard that it's sometimes good to give it the beans occasionally, or does sending the needle to the red line do more harm than good?

[alexp999]

As long as the engine isn't too new, and it has had a chance to warm up, I don't see it doing any harm every now and then.

The whole point in the red line is the point at which the engine management will cut the power to protect the engine. The so called, bouncing off the rev limiter.

If anything always driving by the shift change indicator ALL the time will do more harm than good and you will find thing get blocked up. Petrols aren't as bad as diesels, but any engine benefits from a bit of a clear out every now and then.

Like I say, just don't do it on a cold engine.

[Stoney871]

An occasional Italian tune up is good for the engine just as long as you don't dump your clutch at very high revs.

[scotthunter]

An Italian tune up? Please explain!

[alexp999]

An Italian tune up? Please explain!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Italian%20tuneup

Funnily enough, a French mechanic had to do that to my dad's old Clio, which did actually fix the problem.

[Marcr1]

Newer engines don't tend to bounce off the rev limiter either, they just cut the power. On older cars they will bounce like you say and thats what causes the damage. I've hit the red line in my Fiesta and the power just dies until you change up a gear.

Talking about the green change up arrow mine doesn't come on until about 6000rpm may be because it's a sport engine. Anyone with a metal or S1600 experienced this?

[scotthunter]

The green light doesn't come on until 6000 rpm? That light is supposed to tell you the recommended time to change gear to maximize fuel economy. At 6000 rpm it's a bit late for that! Generally my ZS asks me to change from third to fourth at about 25mph, and fifth at 35mph. Pointless really as it doesn't take into account if you're going up a hill or not.

[Marcr1]

I'm guessing because it's a sport model, its consistent throughout every gear

[scotthunter]

I heard the gear ratios are shorter on the S1600 / Metal. What RPM are you on on cruising at 70? In the ZS it's 3000.

[Marcr1]

I'll have to have a look tomorrow, not too sure off the top of my head but I thought they were longer as it does 0-60 quicker and distinctively remember reading it had a longer 1st gear

[MartynS]

Put your reg number into http://www.etis.ford.com and see what that says the gear ratio is for the S1600 - my ZS states "Gear 3.58/1.93/1.28/0.95/0.76" and an axle ratio of 4.06. Hopefully that's right!

[Marcr1]

That website never works on my laptop grrrr

[Nay ZS]

I'm curious to know if I'm doing my engine any harm to red line it once in a while? I find that when dropping down into second gear to overtake on the lanes the revs rapidly head towards the 6000 rpm mark before I shift up to third shortly followed by fourth. I only do this occasionally and only when the engine's well warmed up. Most of the time I drive economically and change up according to the green arrows on the dash, usually averaging 40-48 mpg.

I drive a well serviced Fiesta Zetec S 120 Petrol. It's just had it's 10,000 mile service at a Ford garage and has good quality Castrol GTX oil in the engine.

I have heard that it's sometimes good to give it the beans occasionally, or does sending the needle to the red line do more harm than good?

As others have said it's fine and it good to see you enjoying the engines potential everynow and then. I really do love the second gear overtake in the 1.6 petrol. When I'm stuck behind a slow driver on a county lane I usally drop from 5th to second at 40 mph and floor it! Make a great sound and really shifts the car fowards but as you say the gearing means you have to grab third quickly to avoid having the power cut.

[Wayneo01]

Should i stay away from an itialian tune up in my 1.6 tdci?

[alexp999]

I've never deliberately gone above 4k in my 1.6 tdci, but only cus it has only done 10k miles. If anything its more important to drive a diesel hard at times as they have a habit of clogging with soot.

[DieselPig]

Nothing wrong with a good blow out, my TDCi gets a good blast on the motorway occasionaly and I did the same to my Mondeo. That blew the soot out a treat!! :)

[MikePaine]

S1600 has a longer ration in first. Hence the slightly improved 0-60 time. And the shift Eco light is operated instead as a redline light. Comes on about 6.5k rpm I think. I'll try and do a pic tomorrow

[Marcr1]

S1600 has a longer ration in first. Hence the slightly improved 0-60 time. And the shift Eco light is operated instead as a redline light. Comes on about 6.5k rpm I think. I'll try and do a pic tomorrow

Cheers! I thought as much, need for speed style

[MikePaine]

Need for speed style would surely mean I have 16 gears and never have ill throttle down until I was just about to lose a race. THEN. Use full throttle. Them films baffle, yet still amaze me. New one next year!

[b1g_dav3]

Nothing wrong with giving a diesel a booting; I give mine a good going over quite often, if the car wasn't supposed to red line, then Ford would have lowered the maximum revs.

[Bower]

Hi everyone. I did not want to create another thread because I am pretty sure it was discussed before, I just couldn't find it among other 9000 topics on this forum.

Soo, my question is, from your experience, how many miles have you done with your new fiesta before you started revving it 5k+ rpm?

I think in English it is called 'breaking-in' the new car ( sounds rather weird to me)

In one guide I found that the general rule would be that one shouldn't exceed 3000 rpm during the first 1000 miles?

Did you do more or less?

Thanks in advance.

[Bower]

Hi everyone. I did not want to create another thread because I am pretty sure it was discussed before, I just couldn't find it among other 9000 topics on this forum.

Soo, my question is, from your experience, how many miles have you done with your new fiesta before you started revving it 5k+ rpm?

I think in English it is called 'breaking-in' the new car ( sounds rather weird to me)

In one guide I found that the general rule would be that one shouldn't exceed 3000 rpm during the first 1000 miles?

Did you do more or less?

Thanks in advance.

[DieselPig]

The handbook for the Fiesta says do not drive to fast for the first x miles, what!

Best way to run-in an engine is by driving it as normal. Don't !Removed! foot around with limiting revs, but don't take it into the red for the first 1000 miles.

Modern engines use synthetic oils that provide superb lubricating qualities, the purpose of the running in procedure is to bed the moving parts in through heat cycling and friction. If you drive too conservatively the engine will just drink oil as it is not being run in.

Change the oil after 3000 miles then just normal service routine. I did this with my Mondeo and it used 0.5 litre of oil up to its first service at 12500 miles and nothing after that till I sold it with 280K miles on the clock

[b1g_dav3]

I gave mine a booting at 54 miles. Oops?

[scotthunter]

As others have said it's fine and it good to see you enjoying the engines potential everynow and then. I really do love the second gear overtake in the 1.6 petrol. When I'm stuck behind a slow driver on a county lane I usally drop from 5th to second at 40 mph and floor it! Make a great sound and really shifts the car fowards but as you say the gearing means you have to grab third quickly to avoid having the power cut.

I agree it does make a great noise when you drop into second and put your foot down and it really demonstrates why Ford quote this engine's max power output of 118bhp. The engine is transformed from being super smooth and well mannered to being an absolute animal!