That is what I heard, but then again someone said that you should drive it like you stole it from day one? What say you guys?
Peace!

 

Sorry for the newbie question, but how low of a rpm is consider to be "lugging" the engine?

 

No.

 

anything at or below idle is definitely too low.... i would say just a little above idle would be the lower limit. lugging is basically any time you're in too tall of a gear for your speed. you will know it because the engine will run rough and you will hear it struggling.

You can easily cruise at 45 mph in 6th gear without lugging, but if you need to accelerate or go up a steep hill you would want to downshift to a more appropriate gear. If you have to floor it just to accelerate a little - you're lugging the engine. If the engine starts running rough and sputtering because you're in 6th gear and doing 15mph - you're lugging the engine.

Our Z makes a lot of torque at low RPM so you almost have to try to lug the engine.

Oh, and the notion that running an engine hard somehow prevents or cleans out carbon deposits is borderline humorous. I feel compelled to ask these people if they even know what carbon deposits are or what causes it.

 

Do as you wish, but I like to listen to the recommendations listed in the owners manual.

 

Great description of lugging. Best I've seen anywhere.

I think it is important to understand this because lugging is hard on the valve train and doing this a lot can damage your engine. As you point out, it isn't a common abuse problem with the Z since this engine has so much torque.
--Spike

 

Ooooh...

Please define "Extremely Cold" and what's a "warm up" for Popular Mechanics?

Warming up an engine for 10 minutes is silly. But we need a couple of seconds for the oil pressure to get up. Then, another couple of minutes for it to comme down at idle. Engines get warm faster when loaded, so yeah, start, wait a bit and drive.

A "regular cold" temperature in Montreal will be -10C (I leave the maths to you to get to F). That's not a problem to most engine.

A "Seriously Cold" in Montreal will be something like -20C. That's cold. And let me tell you that, even running 0w20 synthetic oil, you don't want to take off within a minute of starting the engine. Oil pressure will be stratospheric at idle, plus the engine will turn pretty roughly. Transmission will not shift properly either...

We sometime get below -35C. Then, you need some planning, winter engine oil and a really good battery to get the car to start.

So, unless "Extremely Cold" for Popular Mecanic is -10C, they are wrong on that one...

 

I jump on it every once in a while but mostly drive at lower RPMs. As long as you aren't lugging the engine (AKA driving in 6th at 25 MPH) you should be ok.

 

the manual recommends warming it up especially in cold weather.

 

The motor won't sustain itself at 4rpm.

 

The exotic car owners are special; can rarely see them punch it because they <3 cruising @ 10 mph under the limit, lol.

 

Oh I definitely blow the soot out of my machine...

 

Sorry, Bill, but I will disagree with you on this one. You always have very useful information. However, in this case, I have personally experienced these problems through family members. I have had these problems with used cars I have purchased. All of the research I have done, and all of the various mechanics (good ones) I have spoken with have led me to conclude that carbon build-up can be delayed with a good accelerative burst.

On another note, all low-rpm driving isn't bad, unless you lug it, which you comment on later. It is still good to open the car up.

And finally, why buy a Z if you are gonna drive it like a granny?

 

That's your opinion. I am just staing what the article said. For more answers, contact popular mechanics and/or see the latest issue.

 

Just stating what the article said.

 

Nobody is calling you names or anything. Don't take it personnally!

I'll check out the article this week. I'm guessing the "no need to warmup" recommendation isn't as straight forward as your post let it seem. That's all

There is a median between idling for ever and turning the ignition then shifting to D in one movement...

The engine might not need it. But did you ever wonder why the injection and ignition mapping is different between warm and cold engine operation?

 

Hey now...............don't shoot the messenger.
The article is titled something along the lines of "your dad was wrong". It gives a few "myths" about autos that don't really hold up any longer.
Whether you agree with the articles claims or not, it's still fairly interesting.
And the article was pretty much straight forward about the no need to warm the engine topic.
I never said I agreed 100% with what was stated, just posting what the article said.
I myself let my engine run for a while before taking off. The colder it is, the longer I let it idle. But I don't let it run for "minutes" usually.

 

You’re right. Good post.

About the math for Celsius and Fahrenheit… They intersect at -40, and that is really cold. I’ve personally seen this temperature while in Calgary. I did get my rental car started, but who would want to drive it right away? You can’t get it into gear, there’s ice on the inside of the windshield, and your breath frosts everything. This scenario has a requirement: warm-up time. I’m in Minneapolis, Minnesota where the worst we see is minus 20 F. We always do a warm-up. In fact remote car starters are big sellers here so you can warm the vehicle before you even get into it. I don’t really know if just taking off immediately in sub-zero temperatures could damage the engine, but this is a mute point since you can’t immediately drive the vehicle in a safe manner.

--Spike

 

Sure it will

I misread your previous post. I was think 4000rpms, not 4. Doh!!

 

I used to red-line my Mazdaspeed MX-5 every chance I got, I call my Tech one day and I asked him was this bad for the car, and he said the same thing you just above state. God, I miss that car too.