I'm talking about our everyday car. I've heard that driving like a granny can cause some problems, and driving like a racer all the time as well. So should we normal citizens push our beloved cars once in a while to their limits, or close, once in a while to maintain good engine health or is that just a load a baloney ? And why ?

i would say it's crap. people are going to drive the way they want to, anyways...

If you only drive like a granny engine will slowly start to collect soot (if this is the right English term). More soot = less power and also it gets to the oil and this will make the lubrication worse = more wear.
Giving the engine some proper right foot once in a while will burn the soot out.

Quote from BigPeBe :

If you only drive like a granny engine will slowly start to collect soot (if this is the right English term). More soot = less power and also it gets to the oil and this will make the lubrication worse = more wear.
Giving the engine some proper right foot once in a while will burn the soot out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_tuneup

I bought my MX-5 with 40k on the clock, my S2000 with 60k. Both cars could "breath" more freely again after i took them to the track and drove at the (engines) limit for a day. It's not a myth, it's true (depending on how granny-like the car was driven before).

my community had an old VW T4 Bus (2.7 5-cyl N/A diesel , 78hp ...) that was only used for short commutes, bringing grannys to the mess and stuff like that. But once or twice a year we drove it 12 hours to France and back for a youth camp.
It could reach only ~130kp/h on the start, but above 150kp/h on the way back.
And the fuel consumption dropped significantly.

Until engine gets warm I drive like a granny, but after it reaches 90*C I just have to check if all the horsepower is still on its place, as soon as there is a nice straight with low traffic and no photoradars or police. Sometimes it happens for me to drive like a granny for few days in a row, for example few weeks ago when my clutch was dieing.
It's good to push the engine to the limits from time to time, but remember to warm it up before atempting that and watch out to not overheat it while pushing it to the limits. For example variable geometry or wastegate valve in turbocharger can get stuck by granny driving.

I tried to push a 1.8TD escort to the limits in the rain. (wheelspin until 2nd gear). The amount of the black smoke was unbelievable . Didn't seem so healthy so I'm back to the old granny mode

One of the biggest issues that plagues many cars is being taken on only very short trips that do not properly warm the engine. You tend to get condensation in the oil and sludge buildup this way.

Im not an expert on engines (yet :3), but i'd say some revving over time will help keeping the engine clean etc. When i had my mazda 626, i drove 10km with like pretty damn low rpms (started with 500rpm's @ 1st gear etc - not kidding, the engine was very good). Then the cilynders got stuffed or how do i say it ... meh, couple of revs and that cleaned 'em and i was able to drive flawlessy again.

It was a '84 Mazda 626 with 2.0L gasoline engine.

what my question is...do that to "old" cars as well?
ive got a '93 mondeo with 182k km's on it...dont know if i make it better or worse like that!

Hey guys, does that happen in the tropics where it is around 30 or more deg C all year round? It's more than warm enough.

As long as the engine is up to temperature (the oil, not the coolant), you should have no problems exploring the rev range (it's what it's designed to do, after all) - thats not to say you should always drive at the redline, but a healthy engine needs the odd boot every now and again.

i beat the shit out of my car all the time,and when i changed my valve cover gasket last year the head looked like brand new ! but ye it does help when u get on it sometimes,i also use atf fluid in the engine and fuel tank as well few times a year which helps too.

Quote from hiroshima guy :

Hey guys, does that happen in the tropics where it is around 30 or more deg C all year round? It's more than warm enough.

Needs to be warm enough to boil off any moisture. So no, 30C is not warm enough. 100C, or close to it, is, and probably for at least 15 minutes.

My car has nearly 400,000 km. It gets a boot full till the tach reads way off the scale (at about the 7800 mark) a couple times a week, any higher and I start getting valve float. Runs better than any other N/A 944 I have ever been in.

My 6.5 diesel truck meets the solid limiter at 3750 every single time I drive it. I hate that limiter with a passion, cuts in right as the real power starts to come in. I am going to attack the CPU with my laptop one day.

As long as the oil is up to temp and you are not low on oil, you will be fine.

It's pretty common knowledge that carbon build up on Apex Seals can destroy engines, so its generally accepted that rotaries should be redlined every now and then to keep them nice and healthy.

i wouldn't condone Redlining it Yes, In an ideal situation on good open roads, going up and down through the gears, lightly working the engine is perfectly healthy.

I wouldn't say pushed to the limit, I'd just say getting the RPM up high enough for the oil pressure relief valve to open would be sufficient.

Diesels respond very well to being driven hard. The worst thing you can do to a diesel engine is not make them work. They were designed to be laboured, when all you're doing is carting yourself too and from work in the city, you're killing the engine.

I push my 1.8D as hard as you can and I get better fuel economy than a guy who lives near me with an identical 1.8D van, we even do the same sort of drive to and from work. The only difference is he drives economically and I drive like a loon.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Diesels respond very well to being driven hard. The worst thing you can do to a diesel engine is not make them work. They were designed to be laboured, when all you're doing is carting yourself too and from work in the city, you're killing the engine.

I push my 1.8D as hard as you can and I get better fuel economy than a guy who lives near me with an identical 1.8D van, we even do the same sort of drive to and from work. The only difference is he drives economically and I drive like a loon.

Or it could just be a bad diesel motor :P.

If the diesel motor is good, the last thing you should need to do it boot it. Diesels can be worked hard by ramming it into the highest gear at the soonest interval and going full throttle from there.

All you have to do to maintain better than average engine health is change the oil more often than recommended.

Modern engine/fuels burn a lot more effiecently than old cars did so the carbon build up is no way as near as big a problem as it used to be.

My dad religiously changed oil every 3 Months using a good quality cheap oil (doesn't have to be expensive). Whenever he did an engine rebuild on one of his cars it was like new on tear down even after fifteen years

Use only premium fuel and change your oil regularly and your engine will out last the car for normal everyday use. Good oil health = good engine health.

Interesting discussion here:

http://www.techsupportforum.co ... nge-frequency-114349.html

Driving your engine to its limits to 'clean' it is a myth imo it may have an effect but to say it is better than or replacement to good engine care is not a good idea. If you do a lot of city driving it can do it good to take it on a long country run but doesn't have to be driven at its limits, pushing an engine to its limits increases engine wear and may blow out a few cobwebs but that is only if the engine hasn't been cared for properly in the first place.

Quote from BigPeBe :

Giving the engine some proper right foot once in a while will burn the soot out.

I've been told this is true of diesel engines, where if you take them on the motorway and run them flat out for a few miles it has the effect of 'cleaning out the headers', making it run better. I've heard this from many diesel mechanics.

Quote from Dygear :

I've been told this is true of diesel engines, where if you take them on the motorway and run them flat out for a few miles it has the effect of 'cleaning out the headers', making it run better. I've heard this from many diesel mechanics.

I have a diesel 10kva genset on the farm and the manual recommends running it under at least 80% load for best efficiency and to maintain engine health so mybe it is true for diesel cars also?

diesels are dirty pigs though, step on the gas and thick black smoke comes out.