Hello LFS community!

This post might sound a little repetitive but I still would like to read your thoughts about this because I've had contradicting answers about this from people with a lot of LFS experience.

It's perfectly clear to me that over-reving the enging while downshifting causes engine damage. No problem here.

But there are people who say that hitting the rev limiter while accelerating also causes engine damage while others say that if you hit the rev limiter simply by accelerating you could drive around all day with no problem.

I'm sure you guys have the absolute truth

What causes engine damage? Gremlins.



Engine damage happens in LFS once a certain rpm is reached, roughly speaking where the redline on the tachometer is. There is also the rev limiter, which cuts in at another point. While it's possible to extract the exact rpm at which the rev limiter cuts in, I don't know of an easy way to find the extract value at which engine damage occurs.

It's safe to say the safety margin varies per car, but I would have thought that Scawen has made all the rev limiters cut in before engine damage. I suppose you can always test for yourself by driving a few laps in each car in 1st gear at the limiter and see if you start to hear the crackling noise.

How stupid of me for not thinking of that. I just did the test with the FXR (the car that gave me problems) on Kyoto Ring Oval (easy for testing).

I did one fast lap, then 5 laps in 3ed gear continuosly in the rev limiter, followed by another fast lap. The top spead was exactly the same. No engine damage what so ever.

When you do the test you clearly see the rev limiter stops de needle exactly at the redline. You just know the car isn't suffering.

Just for fun I did one extreme downshift...mmm...I lost about 20km/h max speed

Thanks...I'm convinced.

FXR is probably not the easiest to damage, after all it is one of the only cars with ignition cut.. That might help prevent quite a bit of damage, but I'm not sure.

I read somewhere ( I was LFSWiki, if I remember right ), that shifting gears at the wrong games can be dangerous to front wheel drive cars.

It can be dangerous on any of the cars where clutch control is required. Shift down too fast and rough, and you will lock the wheels that have drive, which can cause loss of control. Do it right however, and you can use engine braking in conjuction with your brakes to slow down alot quicker for the corners.

I find i can usually take the cars an extra 500rpm or so over the rev limiteres (for example, upto 8000rpm in FXO, when its limiter is 7500rpm) safely with no engine damage. Any further and i tend to do damage to the engine.
FZ5 is a tricky car to engine brake, due to the rear wheels locking very easily. It can be done though if you have smooth clutch control.

You can damage some engines by flatshifting all the races and going too much over the curbs

Spanish:
Puedes dañar el motor de algunos coches si no levantas el acelerador al subir de marcha, o si te vas comiendo los pianos. Aparte de lo de no bajar marchas a lo bestia jeje

I did 5 laps of bl1 in an fxo, holding the car flat out on the limiter in 1st gear the whole time. It took a little time, but no engine damage occurred whatsoever.

The same is true, well theoretically possible in real life, as a rev limiter is always set at a 'safe' RPM, so sitting on the limiter should not cause any internal damage to the engine either.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

I did 5 laps of bl1 in an fxo, holding the car flat out on the limiter in 1st gear the whole time. It took a little time, but no engine damage occurred whatsoever.

The same is true, well theoretically possible in real life, as a rev limiter is always set at a 'safe' RPM, so sitting on the limiter should not cause any internal damage to the engine either.

In real life rev limiters, if they are ignition-cut only, a lot more heat will usually be produced. This means that running on the rev limiter for longer time will probably heat damage the engine.

When I use LFS, I use VLFSDash. In this program, in the bottom right corner, there's a little red light that comes on when the engine is being damaged.
I've seen it turn on when:
• downshifting (error) to 1st in a FWD car;
• at the rev limiter, going downhill.
So, staying at the rev limiter is safe. But if you go downhill, you may destroy your engine

T7RThree Jump is the main cause of engine damage for me. out of all the people i have raced, this lad has one of the best opening laps (usually) out there. the little bugger seems to get all the luck when it matters!! i then have to drive the shiznit out of my car to catch him. usually means alot of late braking. then the engine gives up. i needs to get back my consistancy as i don't play LFS as much as i used to. good times tho.
i'll get you next time gadget!!