Driving cars hard (high rpm's)

["Wm. Josiah Erikson" <josiah@gsinet.net>]

Hmmm...
    Just thinking...
    I've always sortof thought that high rpm's wasn't necessarily taking a lot of
life out of your engine. I mean, I dunno... I'm sure that VERY high rpm's are bad,
etc, but I used to drive my old '83 (the one with like 350K miles on it) up at
high rpm's all the time because that's the only place it had any power. Down low
there was nothing left (110psi compression per cylinder... it was dying... but who
could blame it?), so I ran it up to approx. 6500 rpm on a regular basis. That was
where it had power- below 4800 rpm or so there wasn't anything to speak of...
    I always run my engines up high, and I always change the oil regularly and
make sure that it's at the correct level, etc, and generally just take good care
of my cars, but I beat on them, too. But they always last me and don't seem to
show any premature signs of wear. But then again, I've only driven a total of
100,000 miles on 10 cars so far in my life, so I haven't had any one car for very
long...
    Maybe running cars up that high IS really bad? I never really thought it was.
I mean, I know people THINK it is, but is it really?
    -Josiah

Alex Tomic wrote:

> > I know this a constent Debate on this list but.....I think everyone who is
> > considering going to Synthetic should read car and drivers report on oils
> > and see that in fact in there study with over 200 types of oils they used on
> > cars for long term they were unable to find ANY oils that were better than
> > one another....They even went as much to say in the report that Synthetic
> > had NO better protection for ANY of the cars they tested long term......The
> > only thing it may have done that they noticed is reduced the temp by as
> > little as 6 degrees for the first two months of having it in the test
> > vehicles.....Now the thing they did was changed the oils at the manufactures
> > (oil compnays that is) request so regular oils were changed at 3,600 and
> > synthetic was changed at 5,000 (miles)...they noticed no differance at
> > all.....and in the long run regular oil was still 30% cheaper!
>
> Yes, I think it seems to depend more on who you ask and what magazine
> article/report you read as to whether synthetic is better... all I know
> is what i've seen. My cousin used synth in his 89 jetta for about 160k
> mi (before he sold it), taking every single gear to 6500 rpm (on a 8v!)
> every time out... and his engine was still excellent condition. You
> can't get much more abusive than that! I figure that report C&D did was
> for more normal conditions? I drive my cars very hard, so I want every
> bit of protection i can get... i don't want to be thinking when i'm on a
> highway onramp at 4500rpm "ooh i'm taking a lot of life out of my
> engine, i should shift".
> --
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@scirocco.org,
> with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.



--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@scirocco.org,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.

------------------------------