Any danger in over revving?

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piratefan
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Coming from someone who is not a car person:

Is there any danger in red lining the Versa? I want to take mine to an autocross, but I know nothing about what driving at high RPM's can do to a car.


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biggie
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piratefan wrote:Coming from someone who is not a car person:

Is there any danger in red lining the Versa? I want to take mine to an autocross, but I know nothing about what driving at high RPM's can do to a car.
There is always a danger. But the redline in place from the factory should protect it somewhat. Still multiple times at redline is not going to be good for the engine.

Also you would want to look at a dyno for the engine and see where power falls off. A lot of engine decrease in power before the redline and at that point is where you should be shifting.

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piratefan
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Any recommendations on places to get that test done, in Raleigh OR Winston? Again, I know very little about cars, other than how to drive them.

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biggie
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I was refering to finding a dyno sheet of a Versa on the web. But I can't seem to locate one.

If you really wanted to dyno the car, I believe there are a few places around Raleigh. Just lookup dyno or dynometer on google or yellowpages. Can't really think of any that I've heard that are bad. But be warned to get a dyno done it will probably be $50-$100, maybe more.

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superskunk
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most autocrosse courses are set up kinda small, so you wont even leave 2nd gear most of the time...

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boxcarbill
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Mine hasn't been over 4k yet and probably never. Wanna achieve oil burner before 100k miles? Keep the revs up, it'll do it.

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MinisterofDOOM
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All my cars hit redline daily. Usually multiple times daily. All my cars have over 200,000 original-engine miles (Max has 250,000 and the motor is NOT stopping any time soon).Exercise is good for you. Of course if you're not healthy it can also kill you. Same applies to cars. If you car is otherwise healthy, the brief redline sprint now and then is not going to hurt anything and can in fact be beneficial.

Sustained high revs are harmful, though. Street car engines aren't designed to maintain good lubrication at sustained high revs. Some Nissan engines in particular are known for not being able to return oil to the pan as fast as they drain it at sustained high revs which leads to bottom end damage. Also, street car water pumps aren't designed to operate well at sustained high revs. Coolant system performance suffers at high revs, when the most heat is being made.

Autocross will be fine. The races are very short and you won't be at redline long enough to do damage. Just make sure you aren't low on oil (ideally new oil) and your car has been cared for properly.
boxcarbill wrote:Mine hasn't been over 4k yet and probably never. Wanna achieve oil burner before 100k miles? Keep the revs up, it'll do it.
Actually, this is not true at all. In fact one of the SOLUTIONS for the oil burning problem with their early VK-series V8s was to push the motors HARDER during the break-in period to seat the rings better.My cars get driven HARD. But I keep them conditioned for it with regular basic maintenance. My 250,000 mile VG30 does not burn a single drop of oil. And that car saw multiple redline runs PER DAY for years. High revs won't hurt anything unless you're mistreating the engine in some other way that's making it vulnerable. Sure if you drive around in 1st gear all the time at 6000 rpm without stopping something will go wrong. But bumping redline between shifts and even driving at redline on a track for a few seconds isn't going to hurt anything.

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jdmVersa
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i think the most important thing you should take into consideration is that this is a versa... not a fully built and tuned race car. and even they break stuff periodically, so the choice is yours and yours alone... good luck!


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Red Devil
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jdmVersa wrote:i think the most important thing you should take into consideration is that this is a versa... not a fully built and tuned race car. and even they break stuff periodically, so the choice is yours and yours alone... good luck!
Legends of the Hidden Temple much? I loved that show.

Taking any car to redline can be dangerous. Wether it be a 5,000 rpm redline in a big block Chevy to a 10,000 rpm redline of a 13B Rotary. Even normal driving will eventually render issues that can lead to engine failure. Going to redline will bring those issues up sooner though.

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Jus14
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REEEVVVVV TOOO REEEDDDDDD!!!!!!!! FTW!

Kalypso
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superskunk wrote:most autocross courses are set up kinda small, so you wont even leave 2nd gear most of the time...
true but you're still revving high within those 2 gears to get around the course fast.

but I use a 5 speed with my sr20

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Hocuzmean
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over rev can mess up your engine!!!!!!

Kalypso
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... you can also build up your head.

once again tho this is sr talk, I dont even know what powerplant versa's have

grogman
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boxcarbill wrote:Mine hasn't been over 4k yet and probably never. Wanna achieve oil burner before 100k miles? Keep the revs up, it'll do it.
......my theory on high revving is pretty simple........your car gets gummed up driving punky daily....cars are kind of alive because cars like to let loose sometimes......you ever heard of the phrase GET THE LEAD OUT........same rule applies to getting the crud out of your engine..........the good thing about manual shift engines is that you can aggressively drive easier. when i lived by the santa cruz mountains i used highway 9 to get the crap out of my engine. i don't have that anymore nor a manual shift....it would do anyone's car good to bring it to a race track and take it through the motions once in awhile.........your engine will thank you......serious.

Shad0wXCalibur
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Although a lot of people believe this, babying a car throughout it's entire life isn't good for it but neither is redlining it all the time. Driving it harder blows out some of the crud and actually helps keep your engine clean but if you slam it all the time, you will wear it out unless you use a high quality synthetic. So with that being said, I just drive. I don't think about how hard I'm driving it or the gas mileage, I just drive because I know the engine will be fine and the gas mileage has never disappointed me. It's actually increased by 1 or 2 mpgs. I tried "hypermiling" it for a day and I got maybe a whole extra 5 miles out of the tank. How boring that it was to drive that way was no way worth that.

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Rockhound
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^ My thoughts exactly.

I get my cars up to pretty high RPMs pretty regularly, but I also do my share of calm, collected driving. There's plenty of harm in never revving an engine, too.

It's also painfully boring to never accelerate quickly (when it's safe to do so, of course). I've tried "mildmiling" before (hypermiling just isn't feasible/safe on busy roads) and I've never been so bored. I also have only seen minimal mileage gains from doing so, and would rather enjoy some spirited driving than putt-around everywhere to add a whopping 10 to 20 miles to a tank.


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