What is happening to the engine when you rev the car into the red section?

Question

What is happening to the engine when you rev the car into the red section?

Answer 1

your about to blow it up   you numty

Answer 2

To understand first walk up three flights of stairs,stop then walk down...this is tick over.Next jog up same stairs stop,then jog down...this is 3,000 rpm.Finally sprint up said stairs carrying a heavy shopping bag whilst gargling chilli sauce...this is the red line.

Answer 3

It is going real fast.

Answer 4

Virtually all cars are now electronically controlled so you can't over rev them, but the top end of the rev range is where excessive wear is caused by friction, heat, oil starvation etc.

Answer 5

The engine reving at speeds over the red line stresses components to their breaking point. The most vulnerable are the valves and the piston rods. The valves open and close with a spring making them close. At speeds to high, the spring does not close the valve fast enough, possibly allowing it to come in contact with the piston crown. Bang.

The other vulnerable component is the rod connecting the piston to the crankshaft. In an overspeed condition, these rods which reciprocate under great stress, can break. This could end up sending the piston or rod parts in any number of directions.

A common expression used in racing circles is "hand grenaded the engine". This literally means that the engine came apart into small pieces and scattered shrapnel everywhere.

This is more likely to happen in street racing situations where the amateur does not pay attention to what he is doing. When an engine blows, especially with a standard transmission, the engine may lock up, thus the transmission locks up and the drive wheels stop turning. Add this problem to oil scattered through holes in the engine and you can imagine the results.

There is no need to rev your engine into the redline. The power usually falls off before that point. Might as well shift into the next gear.

Answer 6

It is the 'red-lin' for a reason - if you pay for machining to be done, you can extend your engines' rev-limit.  If you don't get the machining done, and you visit it too much, you will pay anyway!

Answer 7

Going into the red will always damage your engine.

Answer 8

Your blasting out alot of emissions into the atmosphere.

Answer 9

The red zone indicates the maximum speed the engine can run at.

if you rev the engine often into the red zone there is an increased likelihood of long term engine damage and if you go too far into it there is a strong chance of valve bounce where the valves that let fuel/air into the engine and exhaust gasses out will make contact with the top of the pistons and wreck your engine by bending the valves, an expensive repair.

For example Formula 1 cars can run at up to 19000 revs per minute where the pistons go up and down over 300 times a second but these engines are designed to do about a thousand kilometres before being rebuilt whereas your average family car would be expected to do well over 100,000 miles without ever being rebuilt if driven sensibly by not revving to hard.

Answer 10

The piston and valve inertia becomes greater than the components can stand and something is going to snap usually a con rod or valve stem

Answer 11

you are pushing the engine to it's limit witch can cause damage;s .

Answer 12

generally they reach a physical limit govened by valve bounce.

Keep it there, and you'll toast it.

Decent engines are electrically limited.

Answer 13

Pre-mature failure of big & small ends bearings, cylinder walls & piston rings.

Answer 14

Hope you havent a licence as your mechanical ignorance is dangerous. The red line is where you should ALWAYS drive, whilst burning the h**l out of your clutch, smoking a pipe and wearing a trilby.

Most over 80's do it.