Question about redlining . . .
10-09-2009, 11:14 AM
#76
Not true. All RX-8s have a cold-start RPM limiter. I've bumped it several times when not paying attention in my '04 ('03 manufacture date). Redesigned 8s get a variable limiter with dash display.
10-09-2009, 02:59 PM
#77
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#1: Redline is only limited in newer RX-8s, I'm not sure what year they implemented the "warm-up cutoff" but I would guess 2007 or so. Earlier models will let you redline from a cold start if you want to, not that it's good for the engine...
#2: Normal acceleration (not flooring it) should be okay up to 5000-6000 RPM or so, even when the engine is cold. That's why the newer models put the "cold engine" electronically-controlled redline at 7500.
And red-line in 2nd is around 60 MPH which is okay, but 3rd gear is 90 MPH which you should probably not be doing on public roads. 1st gear is easy to red-line on any average city street, and you don't even have to be a douchebag and floor it while you're red-lining. It is possible to redline at a normal acceleration pace, though flooring it on a low-traffic country road or highway on-ramp is the most fun!
#2: Normal acceleration (not flooring it) should be okay up to 5000-6000 RPM or so, even when the engine is cold. That's why the newer models put the "cold engine" electronically-controlled redline at 7500.
And red-line in 2nd is around 60 MPH which is okay, but 3rd gear is 90 MPH which you should probably not be doing on public roads. 1st gear is easy to red-line on any average city street, and you don't even have to be a douchebag and floor it while you're red-lining. It is possible to redline at a normal acceleration pace, though flooring it on a low-traffic country road or highway on-ramp is the most fun!
#2.....Not sure if we really know that answer. I do prefer to keep it at least under the secondary ports opening up until warmed, so generally speaking....I will stay below 4k or so.
Didn't say you couldn't or shouldn't redline in 1st, it's just that I don't like to do so......even when pushing mine hard during those carbon cleanout runs.
, I would have slapped him silly.
10-10-2009, 05:57 AM
#81
I love to hear mine beep unless my wife is in the car with me. I'll jump on the ramp and hear the beep twice as I shift from first thru third. Then as a try for the third redline my wife grabs my shifter (not in a good way) and I say "beep" as she says slow down. I bought the car to drive and she let me because it's "pretty." thank God me and our 8 get some alone time.
If you don't hear the beep you are missing out.
If you don't hear the beep you are missing out.
10-10-2009, 07:14 AM
#83
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have you ever let your girlfriend or wife drive the 8, mine always got mad at me for letting it beep an speeding every where only like 5-10 over. then i thought her how to drive stick now she understands the feeling it gives you. so she doesn't mind if i "beep" cause she does it too when she is driving
10-10-2009, 05:12 PM
#86
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Stepatee, before you ruin your engine, just try to think of the logic behind this redlining philosophy. Does it really make sense that Mazda would market a car that needs regular redlining and they don't mention this important fact to you? Think about it. The rotary engine is just a piece of mechanical engineering and is bound by laws of physics. Carbon build up is a symptom of something wrong with the engine (could be oil type, coils and a host of other things). If it happens, instead of revving the lights out of your engine, find the fault and get it fixed. A proper running rotary will not have carbon buildup if you baby it.
10-10-2009, 07:46 PM
#87
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Stepatee, before you ruin your engine, just try to think of the logic behind this redlining philosophy. Does it really make sense that Mazda would market a car that needs regular redlining and they don't mention this important fact to you? Think about it. The rotary engine is just a piece of mechanical engineering and is bound by laws of physics. Carbon build up is a symptom of something wrong with the engine (could be oil type, coils and a host of other things). If it happens, instead of revving the lights out of your engine, find the fault and get it fixed. A proper running rotary will not have carbon buildup if you baby it.
10-10-2009, 07:50 PM
#88
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Stepatee, before you ruin your engine, just try to think of the logic behind this redlining philosophy. Does it really make sense that Mazda would market a car that needs regular redlining and they don't mention this important fact to you? Think about it. The rotary engine is just a piece of mechanical engineering and is bound by laws of physics. Carbon build up is a symptom of something wrong with the engine (could be oil type, coils and a host of other things). If it happens, instead of revving the lights out of your engine, find the fault and get it fixed. A proper running rotary will not have carbon buildup if you baby it.
this car is rev happy (ROTARY) only,,,,, you need to rev alot and you cant baby this car, i dont understand where your getting your info, but im sure your engine has crazy built up carbon in it. go run the **** out of your car and make it happy
Last edited by ferg; 10-10-2009 at 07:53 PM.
10-10-2009, 08:51 PM
#89
The Crawlster
Um first gear 9k to 9.5 k more than most other gears but only done that a couple cold starts I know bad for the motor but wasn't thinking about that I was just so excited about driving my new 8 from now on ill probably just do redlines from 2nd gear on don't want to blow the tranny in anyway
10-11-2009, 12:30 AM
#90
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Stepatee, before you ruin your engine, just try to think of the logic behind this redlining philosophy. Does it really make sense that Mazda would market a car that needs regular redlining and they don't mention this important fact to you? Think about it. The rotary engine is just a piece of mechanical engineering and is bound by laws of physics. Carbon build up is a symptom of something wrong with the engine (could be oil type, coils and a host of other things). If it happens, instead of revving the lights out of your engine, find the fault and get it fixed. A proper running rotary will not have carbon buildup if you baby it.
Everyone else:
Don't listen to this ^ guy.
The carbon build-up from babying it is a proven fact, as is the improvement the engine gets from revving the hell out of it.
Edit: Maybe you are getting the info from the 13b-REW, where the peripheral ports were much more conducive to getting carbon out of the engine, as opposed to the 13-MSP, which has a harder time getting the carbon 'vaporized' enough to get it up and out the side ports. Carbon build up is also a common problem in piston engines, just the engines barely lose much from carbon buildup, it doesn't cause much issue other than a slight decrease in MPG and power, and is easily cleaned through fluid/cleaner, where the rotary issues from carbon are much more severe, and more precautions need to be taken.
...and 'Mazda not telling you' can only be attributed to salesmen, who are widely known to not have any true rotary experience/knowledge. I'll dig up where Mazda actually does say that high reving is healthy. I know it is in documentation somewhere.
Last edited by RIWWP; 10-11-2009 at 12:37 AM.
10-11-2009, 08:37 AM
#92
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RIWWP, I guess one day I will write a thread about how I screwed my motor by babying it too. It is just taking too damn long though. 33 000 miles of babying this thing and it still works like new.
10-11-2009, 09:05 AM
#93
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I would question what "like new" means to you.
I'm not saying your lying, but either you have a seriously rare engine build quality, handle it in another way (lots of decarbing in another method), or your new engine was sub par and you don't realize what is available.
For example, a recent new member on here got a 09 R3, and loved it. It was smooth power, instant response, everything you expect from a new engine. But he made a thread asking how to get more power, because passing people in dotted yellow areas took too long and he had to get running room. I asked him to time his 50mph to redline, and it was 9.41 seconds on average, no apparent problems. I timed mine (stock), and it was 6.5-7 seconds, starting from a lower RPM, going to a higher MPH (he had the new rear end gear). So something is seriously wrong with his R3, but until the acceleration was timed, there was simply no indication to him that something was actually wrong.
Just saying, perspective of statements like that matter. I have driven ~12 different RX-8s, under a wide variety of engine health conditions, since buying my 8, so I have other basis to compare to.
What are you comparing to?
I'm not saying your lying, but either you have a seriously rare engine build quality, handle it in another way (lots of decarbing in another method), or your new engine was sub par and you don't realize what is available.
For example, a recent new member on here got a 09 R3, and loved it. It was smooth power, instant response, everything you expect from a new engine. But he made a thread asking how to get more power, because passing people in dotted yellow areas took too long and he had to get running room. I asked him to time his 50mph to redline, and it was 9.41 seconds on average, no apparent problems. I timed mine (stock), and it was 6.5-7 seconds, starting from a lower RPM, going to a higher MPH (he had the new rear end gear). So something is seriously wrong with his R3, but until the acceleration was timed, there was simply no indication to him that something was actually wrong.
Just saying, perspective of statements like that matter. I have driven ~12 different RX-8s, under a wide variety of engine health conditions, since buying my 8, so I have other basis to compare to.
What are you comparing to?
10-11-2009, 10:05 AM
#95
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I actually chatted with a Mazda tech yesterday, and he told me that the biggest problems with engines that they see are the people who either baby their cars, only drive in 6th on the freeway, or simply don't drive their cars. He said he has people that don't dare drive their cars hard, so when they bring them in for an oil change they ask the techs to take the car out after the oil change and drive it "like it needs to be drive" to get the carbon build up out.
10-11-2009, 10:21 AM
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/\ Yeah that happens sometimes. But other times when people take real proper care with the car the engine seems to fail. But wtv 
Atleast that Mazda tech actually knows a thing or 2 about the car.
Atleast that Mazda tech actually knows a thing or 2 about the car.
10-11-2009, 03:36 PM
#97
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It is impossible to have every engine perform and last exactly the same. The best we owners can do is address as many risk factors as possible. Someone can get lucky and get 153,000 miles off of a poorly cared for 4-owner engine (a girl in FL before it was totaled), and someone can get unlucky and get an engine failure almost off the factory floor (several of those). If those 2 extremes can happen, then anything in between can happen as well. A single car can NEVER be taken as a prediction model for any level of statistics or measure to an entire model line, although it is the basis for most owner opinions on any car. "My car's engine died, so Mazda makes terrible cars" etc...
If my engine was in terrible shape and prone to lots of failure, it might have turned me off to getting another RX-8, but because of memories. I did 2 years of research before deciding to buy an 8, and even if I got an unlucky draw, a single car couldn't cancel out that knowledge of the line as a whole.
Sorry, got a bit carried away there
10-12-2009, 07:21 AM
#98
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I actually chatted with a Mazda tech yesterday, and he told me that the biggest problems with engines that they see are the people who either baby their cars, only drive in 6th on the freeway, or simply don't drive their cars. He said he has people that don't dare drive their cars hard, so when they bring them in for an oil change they ask the techs to take the car out after the oil change and drive it "like it needs to be drive" to get the carbon build up out.
10-12-2009, 07:39 AM
#99
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Stepatee, before you ruin your engine, just try to think of the logic behind this redlining philosophy. Does it really make sense that Mazda would market a car that needs regular redlining and they don't mention this important fact to you? Think about it. The rotary engine is just a piece of mechanical engineering and is bound by laws of physics. Carbon build up is a symptom of something wrong with the engine (could be oil type, coils and a host of other things). If it happens, instead of revving the lights out of your engine, find the fault and get it fixed. A proper running rotary will not have carbon buildup if you baby it.
All engines need to be "run" every now a then to help "blow out" the carbon.
I 've been behind many car and trucks only to see soot [carbon] coming out of their tailpipes when they floor it.
That stuff can and will build up over time in all engines.
10-12-2009, 08:10 AM
#100
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Redlining our engine is like taking cholesterol medication for your heart. It helps to remove one of the causes of failure, but certainly does not mean that failure will not happen. Ignore it, and you are greatly increasing the risk of failure.
It is impossible to have every engine perform and last exactly the same. The best we owners can do is address as many risk factors as possible. Someone can get lucky and get 153,000 miles off of a poorly cared for 4-owner engine (a girl in FL before it was totaled), and someone can get unlucky and get an engine failure almost off the factory floor (several of those). If those 2 extremes can happen, then anything in between can happen as well. A single car can NEVER be taken as a prediction model for any level of statistics or measure to an entire model line, although it is the basis for most owner opinions on any car. "My car's engine died, so Mazda makes terrible cars" etc...
If my engine was in terrible shape and prone to lots of failure, it might have turned me off to getting another RX-8, but because of memories. I did 2 years of research before deciding to buy an 8, and even if I got an unlucky draw, a single car couldn't cancel out that knowledge of the line as a whole.
Sorry, got a bit carried away there
It is impossible to have every engine perform and last exactly the same. The best we owners can do is address as many risk factors as possible. Someone can get lucky and get 153,000 miles off of a poorly cared for 4-owner engine (a girl in FL before it was totaled), and someone can get unlucky and get an engine failure almost off the factory floor (several of those). If those 2 extremes can happen, then anything in between can happen as well. A single car can NEVER be taken as a prediction model for any level of statistics or measure to an entire model line, although it is the basis for most owner opinions on any car. "My car's engine died, so Mazda makes terrible cars" etc...
If my engine was in terrible shape and prone to lots of failure, it might have turned me off to getting another RX-8, but because of memories. I did 2 years of research before deciding to buy an 8, and even if I got an unlucky draw, a single car couldn't cancel out that knowledge of the line as a whole.
Sorry, got a bit carried away there
^ very good post......