How tough is this boxer engine?
 

My wife mentioned to me a couple of times while I was driving that I treated my car badly due to the way I drove.
I drive like normal most of the time but I sometime floor it all of a sudden after driving normally for most of the trip. This is mostly to beat the traffic lights or to prevent some inconsiderate aggressive numnuts from cutting into my lane.

Mind you I don't rev past 7k but for example I drove at 40 mph say at 3krpm, I'd then floor it to past 6k within 2 seconds or so just to get extra speed quickly and then I would drive at "normal" rev again. Sometimes I could hear the engine residual whirl after that short burst and back at lower rev because I released the gas pedal to drop speed gradually.

Would this damage the engine in a long run? I've been reading many comments that the engine is designed to be revved high, if that's the case, what I do here won't really harm the engine as long as I am not doing it when the engine is cold?

I do feel guilty after doing those occasional short burst as I plan to baby and keep the car for a long time.

Should be fine. The rev limiter will generally prevent you from damaging your engine and transmission VIA the accelerator.

BUT!

Lets say you are doing 70 and you downshift from 6 to 2 thinking you were going from 6 to 4...that can smoke an engine and transmission really quickly.

That would make your engine go to 9k+ RPMs. Usually a gear box will fight you and not let you engage at that point...but it still happens.

Those jumps into way over red-line due to a bad downshift or missed down shift can also trigger limp mode rather quickly and trigger engine error codes. A stealership that sucks could try to use those error codes to deny warranty work.

Are you saying you are listening to her because she knows more than you?

Thrash the living shit out of it otherwise it will get ideas about being a garage poodle.

Subaru engines are popular with custom aeroplane builders because they will run at high revs constantly and reliably for hours and hours and hours on end.

Those of us who bring the car to the track are constantly at 5000-7400 RPM for 20-30 minutes at a time, and no issues there.

Just make sure to:

1) Warm the engine up first, and
2) Keep the RPMs under 7400 (redline)

and you shouldn't have any problems.

You should know that wives are never wrong. Lol.
No seriously the reason I was asking was because I wanted to make sure it's okay.
I have auto one by the way, so no risk of downshifting from 6 to 2 all of a sudden.


Back to the pedal flooring, I'm curious what that whirring sound is when you suddenly floor the gas and then let go of the pedal.

No problems at all with that as long as the engine oil is warmed up already.

Babying and driving it like a granny isn't always the best, try stretching its legs out every now and then, the full rpm range.

Do you ask your wife what brand of tampons you should use?

Why not ask someone with experience?

Hey I get that sound too when I floor it or cruise!

Why wear tampons if he's already been snipped? :bellyroll:

On topic, warm up then :burnrubber:

Some people have reported a fan kicks in for a second after they lift off.

Of course, wives know more that husbands. If you don't believe that ..... you are either not married ...... or miserable or soon to be made miserable.......:cry:

@djmm, I can see why yourt wife (as co-pilot) can feel the engine is being abused ..... after all, when it gets fully reved up, it does sound and feel like it's about to explode.

I'd just reassure her that it has a rev limiter, that won't allow it to blow itself apart (most of the time .... especially with an AT).

:popcorn:


humfrz

Seems pretty logical temps go up at high revs, then the fans kick on and then turn off because airflow through the vehicle has already increased

Thanks guys. If that whirring sound is the fan, it must mean that the fan is only programmed to kick in after certain RPM as I don't hear it when driving normally.

Oh, I'd say the fan is programmed to kick in when the water temperature reaches a certain temperature ..... regardless if RPM.....:)

humfrz

lol, I specifically didn't marry one that would be like that. ;)

You should be fine, so long as you're not getting any knock. A lot of engines will knock under load at low rpms, not saying it's overly harmful, but just something to be aware of. I usually drop it down a few gears to get into the powerband if I'm going to suddenly accelerate from cruising.

I have 28,000 miles on my car, and while a lot of it is highway... it sees redline often, and a lot of spirited driving. Redline is there for a reason, as is the rev limiter.

While probably not expected to sit at 7000+ rpm's its entire life, during Subaru and Toyotas collaboration on the design of the engine and management system they probably expect the car to be beaten on, often. And have built it to a degree of being able to take that on a somewhat regular basis without premature failure.

lolwut?

There is a safety factor in engine design. The redline is 7.4k. I'm sure the engine is designed to run safely well above that.
I don't work in automotive, but I'm sure engines undergo some rigorous testing.

Do you really have a Panda Frs? I plan to wrap it in the future. Can you tell me the ballpark figure?

I'm also interested in a ballpark figure to do this in vinyl. Sadly I don't think there is one single place in Pittsburgh that does these type of vinyl wraps.

That's the "Italian Tune Up"

Need to flog it once in a while to knock dust out of the corners.

We called that blowing the carbon out. And actually it did that with my parents Corolla. After years and years of running at less than 3000 rpm, teen son gets into it and flogs it up to redline, emiting a big black cloud out the exhaust. Was good after that!

Im rough on mine and put about 30k on her in about a year without any problems at all. It's good to give it the beans every now and again and rev her up to keep the engine running nicely.

30k miles and I've slammed into the rev limiter a few times when I had my mind on other things (merging onto the freeway, finding the braking point for turn one at thunderhill).

This engine can sound nasty when you wring it out, especially to someone used to an automatic econo-box never surpassing 3.5k rpm during it's entire lifespan. Drive the piss out of it, that's what it was meant for.

This is NOT true. Remember energy increases with the square of velocity.
Your engine might survive a trip above redline and it might not.

Highly unlikely. The sound you hear is just the engine on what is called "overrun"-- you have lifted off so the engine is being spun by the now decelerating car. This gives different sound

Yes, that's kinetic energy.
It would be pretty dumb if engineers designed a product and set an operation point near the failure point. Safety factor are an integral part of any mechanical or electrical design. That being said, there are a lot of people running this car to 8k rpm. Ive done it for a few thousand miles.

she should make you a sandwich

Haha I hate that feeling when you hit the rev limiter just before the braking point on a track. Just.. a little... further.. <fuel cut>... doh!

You can't go above redline. It's got a rev limiter. You can hold the throttle to the floor all day and the engine can not go over the rev limit.

One would be surprised at how reliable any engine can be if properly maintained throughout its life...... Even the ones people say are garbage.

Wtf, what is your wife doing out of the kitchen? There's sammiches to be made!

You can force the engine to exceed redline by downshifting and dumping the clutch, no rev limiter on a production automobile to my knowledge is going to stop that event, mechanical over-rev is a very real phenomenon.

Hopefully that's outside the scope of what the OP was wondering about.

That's my typical morning drive to work. If I kill it, then its just time for a new engine!