What is more damaging: Throttle or RPMs?

[BMW135pls]

What essentially causes more wear and tear on a vehicle, wide open throttle, or high revving RPMs? Or are they pretty equal?

I drive a 6AT N54 135i, and I always drive using automanual mode, and I'm actually pretty anal about what RPM I shift at. I never rev above 2.5k before the temp needle gets above 160F, and even afterward, I normally don't go above 3-4k even when doing pulls. It's stupid, but I love my car and don't want to beat it up I'm curious what will cause more wear and tear on the car, high amounts of throttle, or high RPMs. Say for instance somebody uses WOT but still shifts at 4-5k instead of letting it get to redline RPM @7k. Are they still causing a similar level of wear and tear to the vehicle, or is there practical merit to shifting early to save on some engine wear?

[Pig Farmer]

I prefer to drive as slow as possible all the way to redline. In all seriousness, WOT tends to be harder on your drivetrain, while revving to redline is hard on reciprocating parts like the pistons, connecting rods, valve train, etc. The speed at which the piston changes direction at redline (without shooting through the hood) is an amazing feat of engineering. Thankfully modern ECUs do their best to keep you from doing too much damage.

[BMWX1-35i]

First your N54 is forged so it can take allot of abuse, more then you will give it in your daily driving. Second, WOT depending on your tune can wash the piston walls and or build up deposits. Not something that happens much but, it can under extreme conditions. Just drive it and don't worry about abusing it. BMW engineered this car for performance and way more abuse then that. If your going to baby it there was no point installing the JB4 (map 5).

So just go and enjoy it.

Originally Posted by BMW135pls

What essentially causes more wear and tear on a vehicle, wide open throttle, or high revving RPMs? Or are they pretty equal?

I drive a 6AT N54 135i, and I always drive using automanual mode, and I'm actually pretty anal about what RPM I shift at. I never rev above 2.5k before the temp needle gets above 160F, and even afterward, I normally don't go above 3-4k even when doing pulls. It's stupid, but I love my car and don't want to beat it up I'm curious what will cause more wear and tear on the car, high amounts of throttle, or high RPMs. Say for instance somebody uses WOT but still shifts at 4-5k instead of letting it get to redline RPM @7k. Are they still causing a similar level of wear and tear to the vehicle, or is there practical merit to shifting early to save on some engine wear?

[ShocknAwe]

No point in running it up past about 6300 rpm. Otherwise enjoy the car and drive it! It begs for punishment. Masochistic little things they are.

[Iron Man]

Originally Posted by 135droptop

First your N54 is forged so it can take allot of abuse, more then you will give it in your daily driving.

I think you mean the crankshaft is forged, the header and block are cast.

[MightyMouseTech]

Too much throttle at low RPMs is also hard on the rod bearings.

[3002 tii]

Originally Posted by Iron Man

I think you mean the crankshaft is forged, the header and block are cast.

x10

[ONDEMAND]

Bottom line (in my humble opinion) is these motors are pretty tough and outside of very high tunes | boost, and failure to provide adequate fuel | oil circulation they will take a lot of abuse as a street car. Real track time and racing is an entirely different animal.

I also think its a mistake (from a maintenance and enjoyment perspective) to baby these engines. If oil temp is up shift in 4-5k rpm range at least a few times during every drive cycle. Occasionally I like to keep it between 4-5k for every gear if Im running the mountains!

When the engine is cold obviously you dont want to rev it high but equally as important is to avoid "heavy loads" being placed on the engine or turbo when cold. What I mean by this is lugging in 4th gear with the pedal all the way down so you can get up a hill is actually asking the cold engine and turbo to do more than slowly reving to 3,500 rpm in a lower gear. Think about what you are asking the car to do with your throttle input and how the gear you are in relates to work load for the engine.

Once she warmed up.....LET IT EAT!!!!!!

[lakefront]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

Too much throttle at low RPMs is also hard on the rod bearings.

Right! So wind it out at least once in a while....its good for it!

[MightyMouseTech]

Just like a good racehorse, take it easy and let them warm up, then run them hard and hot.

[Marc08EX]

Originally Posted by ONDEMAND

Bottom line (in my humble opinion) is these motors are pretty tough and outside of very high tunes | boost, and failure to provide adequate fuel | oil circulation they will take a lot of abuse as a street car. Real track time and racing is an entirely different animal.

I also think its a mistake (from a maintenance and enjoyment perspective) to baby these engines. If oil temp is up shift in 4-5k rpm range at least a few times during every drive cycle. Occasionally I like to keep it between 4-5k for every gear if Im running the mountains!

When the engine is cold obviously you dont want to rev it high but equally as important is to avoid "heavy loads" being placed on the engine or turbo when cold. What I mean by this is lugging in 4th gear with the pedal all the way down so you can get up a hill is actually asking the cold engine and turbo to do more than slowly reving to 3,500 rpm in a lower gear. Think about what you are asking the car to do with your throttle input and how the gear you are in relates to work load for the engine.

Once she warmed up.....LET IT EAT!!!!!!

So when the engine is cold, what RPMs do you normally shift at and what RPM is the limit you'd impose?

At what temperature would you say that the engine has warmed up already? Oil temp needle moving above 160F? Or when it reaches steady state temperature at approx 240F?

Thanks.

[MightyMouseTech]

For me, I try and keep it under 2500 RPM, and light throttle when warming up. Wait till it hits 100 C.

[Iron Man]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

For me, I try and keep it under 2500 RPM, and light throttle when warming up. Wait till it hits 100 C.

Makes me wish I had a real oil temp gauge.

[Marc08EX]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

For me, I try and keep it under 2500 RPM, and light throttle when warming up. Wait till it hits 100 C.

Some people say wait until the oil temp needle moves and then they go... I just don't know what's safe enough.

I've done high RPM runs when the oil temp was at 180F or so.. Hope that's OK.

[ShocknAwe]

It's probably fine every once in a while. Who knows over the long run though.

[Solo_M_Tech]

I wait till my JB4 tells me the engine is warmed up before I go over 3k rpms. After that, it's the beans. I don't drive my car easy.

[mr.fabulous]

Originally Posted by HooningB2G

I wait till my JB4 tells me the engine is warmed up before I go over 3k rpms.

Where is your oil temp gauge at when this happens...

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by mr.fabulous

Where is your oil temp gauge at when this happens...

170*F

[Elemento1991]

I think your over thinking this a bit. Obviously you don't want to redline it but you certainly don't want to be lugging it when it's not warm yet either. Try to avoid boost, if it has to spool some to get up a hill or something let it happen. Personally I think keeping the revs too low to keep the cold engine out of boost is worse than putting your revs where they need to keep the engine under little load.

I always think of it like a mountain bike, your trying to make your car climb a hill in 14th gear, your gonna pull a leg muscle.

As for warmed up, let her have it once in a while and burn off some of that carbon build up. I usually row through a few gears multiple times a day.

For what it's worth, my Subaru didn't have forged internals like your BMW, had 340 all wheel hp which puts much more of a shock on the motor and drive train and I beat the balls off of it for 40,000 miles. I'm talking flat foot shifts, 4.5k rpm launches, flat spins, you name it. It had 80k on it when I bought it too. I had a tune done again right before I sold it and it was still holding good boost and barely used oil.

[IEDEI]

don't overthink it.

just maintain it well, drive it, and enjoy it...

[6MT_Addict]

A while back I read something a Z4 owner wrote about lifter tick. He found that while babying the car he experienced lifter tick on his N52. If he shifted only above 4000RPM once the engine was warm, the to I disappeared

He concluded that the engine was designed to be driven over 4000 RPM, and babying it was actually harming the engine.

Food for thought

[rpsco]

WOT/Redlining from red light to red light is obviously not ideal.