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ok heres the deal. my friend and i were racing and i didnt want to lose so i was kinda red lining just alittle before the 7 rpm but red lining. i want to know if thats bad?? i dont do it all the time, but does it mess up my car and stuff like that. please leave post and help a guy out.

 
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no its not bad , but yea jus dont do it all the time

 
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as long as you dont race your car all the time and not past the 7k you should be fine.

 
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Anytime you push your car to redline, the life expectancy of your car goes down.

To race you have to take it to redline, but as long as you dont do it everyday your car will still last you a very long time becuase it's a honda. (just dont misshift ok )

 
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There is some wear and tear but it wont drastically kill the life of the engine.

 
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Along the same lines... does anyone know if there is an overrev/limiter recorder in the computer? Basically any time you hit the rev limiter the computer records it, and can keep track of how many times the limiter has been tripped. I know M3s and Corvettes have them, but I don't know if this is some standard function of any stick car.

 
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Not that I konw of. I've bounced off the rev-limiter plenty of times while autocrossing. and I've had warrenty work done on the transmission too. Honda's never said a word to me about it.

 
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If you do red line, make sure you know your oil is good and all parts are in working order. If something goes wrong, then the whole engine will **** up big time. Dont make a habit out of it.

 
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one question though, our max horsepower is at 5500rpm's, so wouldn't it be better to shift then? or is it better to push it to redline so the rpm's will be higher for the next gear? Always debate this w/ my friends

 
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yeahh... why dunt we juss shift then???? ive thought about that.. never really thought about asking....

 
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not sure. someone correct me if im wrong.

5500 rpm = max power (stock civic EX --> 127hp)

once you hit that and if you shift, youll be lower in the next gear, and the lower you are, the less acceleration power there is. if you come to 6800 rpm in a gear past the max power point still in vtec (you still got power from that), then shift, youll end up close to the 5500 rpm max power area, and still be in vtec. somethin like that....

i think its an objective in racing to end up high in the gears for maximum acceleration power so that when you shift, youll be higher up in the next gear and so on....

 
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Our max hp is at 6500, max torque is at 4800.

Not 5500.

IronFist

 
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I shift to redline all the time. Every day. My car is at 30,000 miles. If you redline constantly you should basically just change the oil sooner (maybe around 3,000 miles instead of 5,000), change the sparkplugs sooner (maybe around 50,000 instead of 100,000), and do periodic valve clearance adjustments (every 30,000 miles). I will do one soon. I can hear valve chatter. That's basically the only things you have to worry about. Keep your car in good working order and you can redline on shifting all the time. Now, keeping it at redline is a different story. That's not too healthy for the engine. The longer you go, the less healthy it is.

 
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basically what everyone else said..

 
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Umm. . don't do it everyday. . The higher RPMS you got going through there causes the springs on the valves to weaken sooner than normal and you could have valve problems. If you have forced induction you're looking at some real chaos with the piston rods and the valves. An occassional redline isn't bad, but if you do it constantly or everyday. . That's not good. A frequent redliner might have premature gasket and ring wear causing some leaking of oil and other fluids in the car.

Anyways . . it's not good, but it shouldn't kill your car too much quicker than normal. . I do it a few times a week, but not as much as I used to. Just don't miss that gear while the gas is mashed. . You'll really hurt something then. .

But it's a Honda. . So beat it as you will and it'll still last you probably into the next decade. Even with valves clicking, oil spraying and and rods bent.

 
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Good point, Gray.

Also when you change your oil, check it. If you're getting small metal shards in your old oil. If you are you either need a better oil or to change it more often or you're keeping it too high in the RPMs too often.

Gray, can you describe valve chatter? My car is a year younger than yours with 15,000 more miles on it and I don't think the valves have been adjusted. I'd appreciate it, thanks.

 
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Yeah, basically when you're in the higher rev's with the stereo off you can hear a different sound than before. You can't hear the individual clicks since at even 5,000 rpm you're getting 83 revolutions per second, but you can hear a sort of looseness. It's hard to describe. When the engine was new I heard a nice steady sound coming from the engine (even at redline). Now my engine feels loose at higher rpm's. That's the best way I can describe it.

 
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and how do you adjust the valves? I need to do it on mine. I hear it and I know that it is the valves needing adjustment I just dont know how.

 
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I'll do a DIY when I do mine. I'll read up on some DIY's on the net. I'll also ask someone for valve clearance numbers from the Helms manual. Then it's off to buy a clearance guage and that's about it. Take out the ignition coils. Take off everything attached to the valve cover. Then take off the valve cover. Then just use the right torque when tightening everything (need to ask for this too in the Helms manual) and use the guage to check the clearances. Easy enough I think. I hope.

 
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p.s. our max horsepower is 5500, not 6500 for whoever posted that.
correct me if i'm wrong, but every dyno chart I've seen has said that.

 
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Probably at the wheel.

Honda's RPMs #s with their BHP varies a lil'. The DX, LX, HX are 6,100 RPMs @ their max BHP. EX is 6,300.

Torque for the DX, LX, HX is 4,500. EX is 4,800.

And again, that's NOT at the wheel.

 
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I hear clicks when I let up and push down on the pedal sometimes at say a little after 3,000 RPMs but not as high as 5k. I was also hearing clicks when I let off the clutch when moving from a stop, but I learned that's the clutch and it's something normal of Hondas once the clutch is replaced but it's not a problem.