How bad is it to....

[NSX Wanna B]

...hit the rev limiter?

I've done it twice now. I'm just not used to driving something that screems up the rev band like this car does. By the time I look down at the tach I'm almost at 8k and by the time my brain tells my feet and hands to shift I hit the rev limiter. I'm pretty paranoid about my car, so I was pretty upset both times. How bad is this for my engine?
Thanks
Mike

 

[Edo]

I would try to avoid it, but its not any sort of massive damage to your engine.
I hit it alot inadvertently.

 

[Michigan NSX]

Not bad at all - that's what its there for. Just don't do it all the time or keep your foot in it when you do hit it.

P.S. Many racing cars have a rev limiter (for the pit lane speed limit) that they engage and then they just floor it. Their engines hit the rev limiter and just continue to pound it until they leave the pit lane, when the driver disengages the limiter - and off they go!!

------------------
'91 Black/Black

 

[DocL]

It's fine to hit the rev limiter on upshifts. Just remember that there is no rev limiter when you downshift, so there is the risk of over revving and doing serious damage.

 

[HybridHB]

Remember honda set the rev limiter 500 rpms lower than its actual damage RPM. So unless you miss a downshift and hit around 8500 RPM, you shouldnt be too worried.

 

[nsx4fun]

Hybrid, where did you here that Honda says damage occurs at 8500 rpm? I seriously question that it does. Why? Because my Honda motorcycle (CB750K4) has a redline of 8000, but no rev limiter. When I used to laydown long scratch marks, I found that my engine would hold steady at 10,500 rpm in first gear. I have had mis-shifts when drag racing, where the tach indicated I went passed 12,000 rpm.
I won't claim that at these rpm's I haven't risked the kiss of death between a floating valve and a piston, but it hasn't occurred yet. I would be highly surprised and very dissappointed if a Honda engineer told me the NSX engine would suffer damage at only 8500 rpm. I could be wrong, but I bet that engine would not self destruct below 10,000. Any of you hard core NSX race engine builders care to comment, I would hate to hear I'm wrong, but I would prefer to know my assumptions are incorrect if that is the case.

Fritz

 

[Edo]

The NSx engine does not fail, but the oil Pump gears shatter.
No oil Pump=Engine failure.
And that occurs at 9K or 9.5K RPM's if I remember right..
Ask Mark Basch...he knows...(everything)