Bouncing off the rev-limiter

[Energizerrr]

So, who went all the way with their car?
I didn't, I don't really know if my car has it so I'm afraid of over-revving.

 

[W3H5]

I know it's not car related but I've done it on motorcycles, 2 to be sure. It's a horrible feeling initially, unnatural even, but I'd rather that then have a valve shot up my 'arris.

 

[homeforsummer]

Depends what car you have.

Don't think I've ever physically taken any of my cars to the limiter but I've been into the red on a few. As long as you don't do it with any regularity most cars are designed to handle it, and the rev limiter shouldn't do any damage itself as it's designed to prevent doing damage to the engine.

 

[Energizerrr]

I've been in the redzone too, possibly and over it...130km/h in 3rd gear, went past the red-zone (the unmarked area) and that made me think that my car doesn't have a rev-limiter. That scared me to be honest...
*sigh* I miss my dual-webber carb, had to remove it due to excessive backfire and since then my car just doesn't feel the same.

 

[W3H5]

What do you drive? Can I guess? Ford Focus?

 

[Energizerrr]

What do you drive? Can I guess? Ford Focus?

Zastava Yugo Florida
I'll google some pictures, don't have any pics right here. It's an unknown car, made in my country and it's closest to the old Fiat Tipo.

^ Not my car, googled picture.
In the picture is a newer (2006 I think) model. Production ended and Zasava only makes Puntos now.
My car is '98 model and it's got many things wrong with it...I'm not going to invest in it, just no will.

 

[W3H5]

Like this?

 

[Energizerrr]

Yup, that's a newer model but yes.

 

[Kent]

Ive done it and only in gears low enough to not break the speed limit in the redline zone. Done it in my sti and did it in my civic si as well.
In the si it was like gran turismo or an episode of best motoring, in the sti it was like a baby cried while bambi died- it hurt my soul.

 

[Energizerrr]

Ive done it and only in gears low enough to not break the speed limit in the redline zone. Done it in my sti and did it in my civic si as well.
In the si it was like gran turismo or an episode of best motoring, in the sti it was like a baby cried while bambi died- it hurt my soul.

Haha.
Great car you got there. 👍

 

[Thatman]

Did it a bunch of times in the Buick, since it didn't have a tach and the transmission didn't like to shift under high load.

Then like 2-3 times on my R6. I was like "Whoa buddy!" So I set my shift light a few thou's lower.

Then 1 time on my friends vette. Very harsh it was.

None on the rex since it doesn't have one!

 

[Boz Mon]

Ive hit the rev limiter in the Miata several times. Theres only about a 200 rpm difference between redline and the limiter so it hits quick.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Ive hit the rev limiter in the Miata several times. Theres only about a 200 rpm difference between redline and the limiter so it hits quick.

Same here.

Also hit it several times in my 2000 Sentra while doing *cough*moutainruns*cough* and it was never really an issue. Damn 6700 redline.

 

[Zenith]

No rev limiter on my car. I can rev until the crankshaft hops up onto the hood and does a little dance.

 

[Ibonibo]

Generally NO.

It happened but I don't hurt my engine on purpose. and futile on most cars anyway because the torque and hp are less at the very end than in the end.

I can go til 7800rpm but i generally change around 5000 on rpublic roads and 6000 on track.

The M3 e46 got this problem a lot. High rev engine.
And when you start driving the car, you have Leds showing you how high you can rev until the engine is warm. Completly misunderstud by most people. It was the water temp and not the oil tem.


Well, it's not only a limiter issue people frying up the engines, also pushing it on cold or not letting it cool down afterwards that's more bad.

I push my car fairly often, got 165000km on the engine and still on my first turbo (1.8t t4 turbo, 270hp, engine mechanically stock)

I don't count those m3 with changed engine anymore. (crankshaft barrings?is that the word)

 

[CodeRedR51]

Bouncing off the limiter isn't really hard on the car, it's there for a reason.

Also, most cars can mechanically rev higher than where the limiter is set. The car manufacturer usually set's it a bit lower to keep things safe.

 

[GDII]

I haven't done it to my car but that's mainly because the power drops off so much that it takes forever to get there. I've done it in my mums Corolla. It has a soft cut and hard cut. I forgot to change gears fast enough haha.

I had it on the dyno to check the power and torque curve. They hit the rev limiter in 4th gear.

 

[Azuremen]

I've hit the limiter in a number of cars I've owned, generally when I am at an Autocross. Anyone that has done auto-x can understand how that can happen pretty easy >.>

 

[ampire]

You don't want to bounce off the rev limiter unless you run something that cuts spark and not fuel...

Most rev limiters on factory cars cut fuel. The result is the car gets into a dangerously lean condition. This results in detonation and will damage your engine.

Conversely, overreving can cause the valves to float and even drop into the cylinder.

Thats why you want to cut spark/ignition rather than fuel injector.

There are a few piggy back systems that will cut spark, similar to a 2 step launch controller. The other impressive thing about cutting spark is you get a nice backfire, your cats won't last long however.


According to my dyno sheet, my tuner took my 06 Mustang GT to 7300 RPM, which had me a bit creeped out, the factory redline is 6600 and supposedly the valves will start to float at 7200 rpm. I asked him about it, he said it was no big deal. The tuner (JPC) is widely known as one of the best Mustang shops in the east coast. The engine had plenty of juice and was still making great power. I lowered the redline to 7000 as a safety measure against miss-shifting, but I have never taken the car above ~6200.

 

[ampire]

Also the WOT box is a popular limiter system, so look into that.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Also the WOT box is a popular limiter system, so look into that.

Pretty sure we're mainly talking about factory rev limiters here, which in most cases are harmless.

 

[Eric.]

You don't want to bounce off the rev limiter unless you run something that cuts spark and not fuel...

Most rev limiters on factory cars cut fuel. The result is the car gets into a dangerously lean condition. This results in detonation and will damage your engine.

Conversely, overreving can cause the valves to float and even drop into the cylinder.

Thats why you want to cut spark/ignition rather than fuel injector.

There are a few piggy back systems that will cut spark, similar to a 2 step launch controller. The other impressive thing about cutting spark is you get a nice backfire, your cats won't last long however.


According to my dyno sheet, my tuner took my 06 Mustang GT to 7300 RPM, which had me a bit creeped out, the factory redline is 6600 and supposedly the valves will start to float at 7200 rpm. I asked him about it, he said it was no big deal. The tuner (JPC) is widely known as one of the best Mustang shops in the east coast. The engine had plenty of juice and was still making great power. I lowered the redline to 7000 as a safety measure against miss-shifting, but I have never taken the car above ~6200.

You can set your limiter to 5000 if it makes you feel better, but it still isn't going to save anything when you go into 2nd gear at 100mph.




I'm also really surprised at the general response that you shouldn't ever hit the rev limiter.

 

[SkylineObsession]

I've sat the car on the limiter for a few seconds once or twice in my R32 GTS-4 (bounces off it quite quickly) and although i think all the limiters have been removed in my R32 GTS i think i may have hit it once before while booting it?

Theres a motorway underbridge i keep flooring it through, since the car absolutely screams through it (i really should record the sound one day ) and usually go through in first gear and change to second.
One time i didn't change quick enough and it (i think?) made a bang noise or just an abrupt cut off, and from memory i think i noticed a puff of smoke coming out after i changed gears. I think it musta been at/nearly 8,000rpm when it cut out.

 

[Bottoz]

So, who went all the way with their car?
I didn't, I don't really know if my car has it so I'm afraid of over-revving.

Always, as to get a feel audibly and physically of what the rev limiter is. Some cars bounce the rev limiter (my 944), and on others it is a soft rev limiter (MINI). When racing the 944, I usually take it all the way to about 400 rpm below the rev limit. This works best for that motor.

In the MINI, for maximum acceleration, I shift at around 5500. As you can see, Torque drops dramatically once the turbo runs out of steam.
(you can witness this in GT5 as well... taking my 227hp MINI to 7500 rpm yields much slower speeds than when I shift at 6000)

PS... soft rev limiters are pretty cool. No bouncing... just an even steady RPM hold.

 

[speed junkie]

I've hit the limiter on my Miata plenty of times in a variety of circumstances. Not a big deal.

 

[Jondot]

I have not. Don't think I've ever been into the red, in fact - I think it'd probably just die like a cheap blender.

And besides, there's not really any point. All the torque is low-down anyway, and it doesn't exactly provide a nice soundtrack.

 

[niky]

Hitting the rev-limiter on an ECU equipped car is no big deal. There's always a soft limiter where they pull timing first, THEN the hard limiter where they pull fuel. Almost always, anyway... it's unusual to have a car that does it the other way around... and cars usually run so ungodly rich near redline that it's not a big deal to ping off the limiter once in a while. I've never heard of a car leaning out and blowing up just by hitting the limiter... you'd have to sit on it for minutes on end to destroy an engine... and then, only if the engine is marginal at the limiter... most engines can rev between 500-1000 rpm more than the limiter (for a short while) without damage.

Worst I've seen from limiter abuse is losing about a quart of oil from sitting on the limiter in top gear for several minutes under load (redline in 5th... 220-230 km/h or somewhere thereabouts... I guess ). Engine's still fine 40,000 kms later... at 105,000 kms now.

I've hit the limiter in almost every single test drive I've done, when doing 0-100 km/h testing. In various cars. There are only a few engines that feel scary when doing this... early four-cylinder Kia/Hyundai 1.1s were very rough at high rpms and the manual specifically says not to hit the rev-limiter. Chinese cars usually feel ready to explode at the limiter. Well... it's a lot less scary than hitting the brakes.

 

[speed junkie]

^ I have driven cars that don't exactly make you feel confident with the gas pedal and I'm sure they weren't as bad as the cars you mentioned.

 

[Eric.]

Both the Civic and MR2 will happily run up to their rev limiters any time I ask them to. 8600rpm on the Civic and 7400rpm on the MR2. Still haven't got used to when to shift in the MR2 by sound since I don't run it up as often, so I tend to bounce off the rev limiter in first or second. 163,000 miles and runs like a champ.

 

[speed junkie]

^ That reminds me. I drove an AP2 S2000 once with a 4.x final drive (higher than stock.) I quickly found out how quickly the revs rose. I bounced off the rev limiter by mistake a few times. The engine felt like it could do that all day though. Such a well-balanced engine.