Protecting the engine

2lazytogetup

Probably not something petrol heads on this forum would care about.

But does accelerating rapidly, or driving at a very fast speed (over 120kmh for a 1.2 ltr engine for example) wear an motor car engine down faster than the driving style of accelerating gradually and not driving at a very high speed?

Or are modern cars designed to be pushed hard and driving the car hard will make a negligible difference?

u140acro3xs7dm

I would say it depends on how often you drive it hard. An engine needs to be opened up every now and then, but foot to the floor constantly will probably wear it out quicker. Servicing regularly with the proper oil is the best way to protect your engine.

Tacitus Kilgore

Just be careful because if you rev it too close to the red mark on the engine clock you can stretch the pistons and over time this can cause the engine to wear out and get very weak.

2lazytogetup

Owen Steep Ruler wrote: »

I would say it depends on how often you drive it hard. An engine needs to be opened up every now and then, but foot to the floor constantly will probably wear it out quicker. Servicing regularly with the proper oil is the best way to protect your engine.

Thanks for that. But can I ask what do you mean by "engine needs to be opened". Does it mean driven fast or revved hard, or floor the accelerator pedal?

Tacitus Kilgore

OSI wrote: »

lol

What's the little umpire all about?

coolbeans

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Just be careful because if you rev it too close to the red mark on the engine clock you can stretch the pistons and over time this can cause the engine to wear out and get very weak.

I've heard it all now.

Del2005

It's more important to warm the engine up correctly, by not driving hard when cold, than driving at high revs once its up to temperature. Modern cars have rev limiters and computers for everything so unless you drop a few gears when you are doing top speed you can do very little wrong driving a properly serviced vehicle hard for a prolonged period.

Tacitus Kilgore

coolbeans wrote: »

I've heard it all now.

See it for yourself, this lad drove with the needle in the red and this is what happened.

u140acro3xs7dm

2lazytogetup wrote: »

Thanks for that. But can I ask what do you mean by "engine needs to be opened". Does it mean driven fast or revved hard, or floor the accelerator pedal?

Del2005 wrote: »

It's more important to warm the engine up correctly, by not driving hard when cold, than driving at high revs once its up to temperature. Modern cars have rev limiters and computers for everything so unless you drop a few gears when you are doing top speed you can do very little wrong driving a properly serviced vehicle hard for a prolonged period.

What Del said, warm it up first then drive it at high revs for a few mins - no need to try hit the limiter. It depends on your milage too, this is more improtant if the car is lying around.

coolbeans

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

See it for yourself, this lad drove with the needle in the red and this is what happened.

That's not a piston. Looks like a drive shaft.

Dravokivich

I find the best way to protect an engine, is wrap it in a blanket, make sure it's all tucked in nice.

Driving it like you stole it, you'd want to be on top of servicing and checking fluids. You'd also want to be watch other things like gear box, clutch, flywheel.

Or... I dunno, just take it easy? a 1.2 litre isn't really gonna get you much performance.

ELM327

what's more important is to remember to refill your blinker fluid and make sure that your 710 level is not too low

charcosull

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Just be careful because if you rev it too close to the red mark on the engine clock you can stretch the pistons and over time this can cause the engine to wear out and get very weak.

gotta be trolling

Tacitus Kilgore

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

See it for yourself, this lad drove with the needle in the red and this is what happened.

Must of been a 2.0TDi with that torque.

Tacitus Kilgore

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Just be careful because if you rev it too close to the red mark on the engine clock you can stretch the pistons and over time this can cause the engine to wear out and get very weak.

Youre wrong,
Longer pistons means more compression,means more power.
its simple science :cool:

cruizer101

coolbeans wrote: »

That's not a piston. Looks like a drive shaft.

Yep, first image that shows up when google twisted drive shaft.
General consensus on the forum where it is, is that good chance it is from a drag car.

LollipopJimmy

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

See it for yourself, this lad drove with the needle in the red and this is what happened.

Yep, clear cut case of piston stretch here.

jimgoose

BrownFinger wrote: »

Youre wrong,
Longer pistons means more compression,means more power.
its simple science :cool:

No, no no NO!! A good stretch in the con-rods means longer crank throw and more mean torque. 'Sphysics, innit??

jimgoose

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

Just be careful because if you rev it too close to the red mark on the engine clock you can stretch the pistons and over time this can cause the engine to wear out and get very weak.

I am afraid Sir, you are speaking via the rectum.

Tacitus Kilgore

BrownFinger wrote: »

Must of been a 2.0TDi with that torque.

It was a PD actually

jimgoose wrote: »

I am afraid Sir, you are speaking via the rectum.

The rectum's don't fail very often, and when they do it's normally more to do with fuel quality than how it's driven

Zubeneschamali

2lazytogetup wrote: »

But does accelerating rapidly, or driving at a very fast speed (over 120kmh for a 1.2 ltr engine for example) wear an motor car engine down faster

The engine doesn't care about speed, only revs.

Don't rev hard when the engine is cold. Once it has warmed up, don't worry about it.

Tacitus Kilgore

OSI wrote: »

Yeah you can stop posting in this thread now. The poster asked a genuine question so you can take your BS elsewhere.

Mod: Enjoy your vacation

Wibbs

Don't rev too high or force the engine to struggle in too high a gear when it's cold. Wait until the engine and oil temps are up and up for a while before caning it. Regular oil changes with good quality oil as recommended for your engine are a must. Ditto for spark plugs. Keep an eye on timing chains and belts and service/replace them according to manufacturers schedules. Don't run the engine from cold on frosty mornings to heat it up. This dilutes the oil with unburnt fuel(and it'll heat up more quickly if you just drive it). Avoid sudden shocks to the engine and driveline. Burnouts while great craic do nothing any good. The type of driving can make a difference too. I'd much rather have a car that did 100,000 miles driving from Dublin to Cork and back, than one that did 100,000 miles driving to the local shops and back. The latter rarely gets up to temperature and will tend to show much more internal wear and tear and carbon build up.

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

Don't rev too high or force the engine to struggle in too high a gear when it's cold. Wait until the engine and oil temps are up and up for a while before caning it. Regular oil changes with good quality oil as recommended for your engine are a must. Ditto for spark plugs. Keep an eye on timing chains and belts and service/replace them according to manufacturers schedules. Don't run the engine from cold on frosty mornings to heat it up. This dilutes the oil with unburnt fuel(and it'll heat up more quickly if you just drive it). Avoid sudden shocks to the engine and driveline. Burnouts while great craic do nothing any good. The type of driving can make a difference too. I'd much rather have a car that did 100,000 miles driving from Dublin to Cork and back, than one that did 100,000 miles driving to the local shops and back. The latter rarely gets up to temperature and will tend to show much more internal wear and tear and carbon build up.

Amen to that. And especially on diesels with DPF don't run just any random old good quality oil but one that is low SAPS and has the right classification for your particular make of car. BMW/FIAT/GM/MB/PSA/Renault/Toyota/VAG etc all have their own guidelines for *your* engine. Don't be afraid of halving the change intervals if you do lots of stop/start type of driving and short distances. Also, don't ignore warning messages or symptoms. If the car indicates something is wrong it is not just a "sensor".

2lazytogetup

Thanks Wibbs, thats some good advice. when you say Caning it, do you mean i should rev it up a bit after its warmed up.

Also in regard to run engine from cold on frosty morning. Do you mean i shouldnt leave it idling to heat it up. And i should just turn engine on when im moving?

Leonard Hofstadter

2lazytogetup wrote: »

Thanks Wibbs, thats some good advice. when you say Caning it, do you mean i should rev it up a bit after its warmed up.

Also in regard to run engine from cold on frosty morning. Do you mean i shouldnt leave it idling to heat it up. And i should just turn engine on when im moving?

Just don't floor it or run it at high revs until it's fully warmed up (by that, I mean about 5-10 minutes after the temperature gauge shows the car is at normal temperature - oil takes about twice as long to warm up as the water/coolant, and that's what's crucial for protecting the engine). After that, a properly maintained engine will have no problem being driven at high revs (>4000 rpm in a petrol, >3000 rpm in a diesel) or plenty of welly for a sustained period of time, the only real 'problem' is the increased fuel consumption that goes with this kind of driving.

It is always good to give an engine some hard driving from time to time to stop excess carbon build up, if there is too much carbon the engine won't run properly, will have less power and in some cases can fail the NCT because of high emissions.

Wibbs

2lazytogetup wrote: »

Also in regard to run engine from cold on frosty morning. Do you mean i shouldnt leave it idling to heat it up.

Exactly as it's a bad idea. Because the engine is cold the car's "brain" adds more fuel to keep it running. You'll notice when you start your car from cold the revs run higher than normal and stay that way until the engine gets some heat in it. Extra fuel. Problem is a proportion of that extra fuel gets past the pistons and into your oil, which reduces your oils efficiency leading to more wear. Idling makes this worse as the car takes much longer to heat up and stays in this high fuel state for longer.

Leonard Hofstadter

On that point, another (related) problem with leaving an engine idle like that is it means the engine takes much longer to warm up, so the engine is being run for a much longer period of time not warmed up. The greatest wear on an engine is during the warm up phase, best to get it out of that zone as quickly as possible, that's why you should always drive straight away, just gently, until the engine is warmed up. As it gets warmer and warmer you can start to give it more revs and press the accelerator harder.

The only reason to leave an engine idle when cold is because the car is frosted over so you need to clear the windows and windscreen. Using the air conditioning will speed this process up, even though using it will put more load on the engine (which is bad), it will clean the windows much faster, meaning you can drive off quicker so overall it's a lot better for the engine, and also your wallet as you'll get better mpg.