Besides the warning buzzer, I was wondering what happens if you were to push the engine over redline. A friend of mine missed a gear while racing his 300GT, the engine went over redline and the engine died. Does Mazda have any other safety precautions other than the warning horn (which could be a tad bit louder)?

 

The fuel cuts out and you start coasting.

 

Yes, the engine cuts out at 9500 RPM

 

...thanks for the info

 

It should be noted that the rev limiter (I think it's actually at 9250rpm) will not help in the case of an accidental downshift. It will prevent you from using the gas to rev it over redline, but there's no protection against shifting into 2nd at 100mph and blowing the engine.

 

hey i redlined the car in the garage to show my friend but later when i took it out i saw fresh oil on the floor,what does that mean?

 

it means your car is ruined

 

congrats, you killed the car. you win the "i'm an idiot" award.

 

agreed!

 

You're joking, I hope?

 

It means either you have a leak somewhere, or you missed the filler when you were topping up the oil. :p A rotary has no conrods, so it cannot punch a hole in the block as a reciprocating engine can. The consequences of overreving a rotary are internal damage with no external symptoms except for it running like crap (if at all).

Seriously, if the engine is at normal operating temperature there's no harm in redlining it under no load - I'm not sure why folks are calling you names for doing it. Now if the engine was bone cold, then yes, you're a fool to redline it under any conditions, let alone under no load in the garage.

 

...it won't let you get higher than 6k or something, i thought.

 

What happens after redline??? you enter the TWILIGHT ZONE! or was it TIME TRAVEL ? j/k

You get the nasty fuel cut-off...I hit it once, will never again. Worst feeling ever.

 

hmm.......it was a nice day that day though so iunno

 

Don't forget about the flux capacitor engaging.

 

Agreed. You go from being pushed back in your seat to being thrown forward with the same force. Only did it once!

 

Well, I think eccles had the best advise. When I was having some motor work done to my FD some years back I asked the guy about over reving, because I thought rotarys could rev up in the range of 12000. Now maybe not ours, and that's why I asks. He basically told me that I would be pretty safe up to about 1100 then I would start see some problems. He also told me, that at least my motor starts to see a decrease in power in the 7500 - 8000 range. The stock turbos just aren't efficient in that range. I've had the buzzer come on several times with out worry, and have never seen any problems. I would think with the newr technology you'd be just as safe. I'm willing to bet 9k was safe all along, and they moved it up to market it like the S2000. But like eccles said don't go and start it up and rev the **** out of it cold.

That sucks about the whiplash fuel cut off. Is the 8 speed limited too? Has anyone ran it up to speed. I remember my GMC truck was speed limited to like 85mph. That **** was embarrassing when it would shut down.

 

Over-revving a rotary (like on a 2nd gear misshift) isn't a big deal at all. Typically when that happens, you instantly realize that you're in the wrong gear and get out of it. The engine isn't under load or anything, and there likely wouldn't be fuel or spark at that RPM.

Over-revving a piston engine is all kind of bad news - things can hit and break. That's part of the beauty of a rotary - it just doesn't care. If you over-rev it, say "oh well" and don't do it again. No long or short term damage. Not a good idea to do for fun or anything, but if it does happen by accident, you won't turn the motor into a paperweight.

Dale

 

While it's true that a slight overrev won't hurt, it's quite false to say that you cannot hurt a rotary through overreving. Despite the fact that nothing's reciprocating in there, there are still loads on the eccentric shaft, and if you massively overrev, the shaft can and will flex to the point that the apexes of the actual rotors - not just the apex seals - contact the rotor housings. Once they've done that once, the damage is terminal - if it's slight, it may not manifest itself immediately, but if it's major, you'll start running on one lung right then and there.

 

DO NOT REDLINE YOUR ENGINE TO FUEL CUTOFF!

Here is why:

YOu have your engine at 9500rpm, when suddenly the fuel stops flowing.

You are now running ( briefly) a VERY lean fuel / air mixture.
You are almost guaranteed engine knock if you hold on the throttle doing this.

Then you will possibly need a new set of apex seals, as in a new engine.

This is the singular, most idiotic thing that Mazda could do.

They *should have* regulated this with ignition cutoff.
Then the worst that could happen is a set of fouled spark plugs.

 

The fuel does not cutoff. To those that have not yet hit the fuel cutoff, Mazda should not have called this a cutoff. The fuel flow does not stop! It just does not increase! You maintain power. They could not have regulated this with an ignition cutoff. Again I think the misconceptions are due to the wording in the manual. What happens is you stop accelerating. You maintain the speed at which the cutoff occurred. In other words, your going 50 in second with WOT, speeds increasing, 51..52...58..(hear buzzer)..60...64..(hit fuel cutoff)...64..64..64. You are "thrown" forward but it's not because of any decelaration, it's because you don't lift off the gas pedal and do not expect to stop accelerating. All you experience is a lack of acceleration which is disconcerting because you're not expecting it. When you back off the pedal your body is expecting the lack of acceleration and you don't fly forward because your expecting it. That is why you fly forward when the cutoff is hit--you're not expecting the sudden change in acceleration.

 

yea, a lot of people say "cut-off" as a term of NO fuel, that is obviously not true. "cut-off" as red-rx8 said, is when additional fuel to the fuel-air mixture is stopped not, no fuel at all, that would be bad.

I hit 10000 RPM racing and nothing happened. It just feels like thats the end of your engine making more power, so you shift up... simple as that.

 

my idiot brother was "racing" a celica gts that wasn't even his, and he ruined the engine by downshifting from 5th to 1st at about 60mph (seriously). Haha, just thought I'd share that with you guys!

 

why would he do that? wut kind of stupidity is that??

 

From what I am told the biggest risk is in breaking the driveshaft.

The drag engines being rebuilt by a couple of people and that got to 14,000 have had a centre crankshaft bearing added to reduce flex loads.

I have seen an example of a cracked RX-7 3rd Gen turbo broken shaft. Not pretty.