down shifting

[jal3lee]

Is this bad???
When I'm cruising at like 70mph and in 6thgear, is it bad to drop from 6th right to 4th so that I can jump high into the rpm range for the extra power or should i be going down only one gear at a time?
I had an 87 300zx turbo, and I would do that get that big boost, but now that I'm older (and hopefully a little wiser) I don't want to do that if it could have negative longterm effects.

Thanks in advance for you help..

[fletch]

Nope. Not bad.

And at 70 you could even drop from 6th to 3rd to really hit it in vtec.
Just make sure you get the revs up there before you drop the clutch.

...
I love doing this when people are tailing me too close.

[slimjim8201]

Make sure you get 4th and not 2nd. When moving across the gates like that, its sometimes easy to skip gears. Try doing a quick 1st to 3rd shift and see how many times you get 5th. Now imagine going from 6th to 2nd at 70 miles per hour.

I did a rough calculation and 11,000+ rpm would not be good for this motor. Kaboom. Even if your engine held together (which it mostly likely will) you will have stressed the connecting rods far beyond their design envelope. This may not cause an instant part failure, but it will most certainly reduce its fatique life.

All this being said, you would have to really muscle the lever to pop it into 2nd gear at those speeds. The synchronizers would have to be pretty worn out not to prevent that. You know the feeling of waiting for a synchro to "sync". Go from second to first at anything over 8-10 miles per hour, and you have to wait a second for the gears to line up. The same thing will be true with the 6th to second shift. Just be aware.

Man I am long winded.

[Java Junky]

Ummm . . fletch? Not to remove a pastime that you seem to enjoy, but about your love of droppin' down when some bozo's on yerrass . . with all the brain-dead that we're forced to share the road with, not to mention the required cell-phone call in progress while they're tryin' to check their hair in the mirror, seein' in their back seat if little Johnny is, in fact, stickin' the frog in little Gwen's face . . well, it jus' seems to me that it's only a matter of time before one of your tailgaters becomes the first S2 backseat passenger.
N' if you're givin' your pastime the proper concentration (i.e.: to quickly not be in the air space that the offending tailgater will shortly enter) there's always the possibility of the scenery to your front changin' while you're concentratin' aft.
Personal opinion, but there's jus' too many of 'em. The odds ain't in our favor, y'know?
Be well.
(Oh, n' I ain't gonna waste my time apologizin' for my long-windedness. "I yam whut I am, n' 'at's all whut I yam")

[Halo]

I disagree. I think a 6th to 2nd shift, even once would be the end of the motor. Valves would float or bearings would spin, but something would fail before you got back on the clutch.

A good technique of downshifting my pops taught me back in the day is to let go of the stick for just an instant when you pull it out of the gate, or just ease your grip on it a bit. This lets the springs pull it to center leaving it between 3rd and 4th. I'm not talking about letting it go long enough to change the radio station, light up a cigarette and make a phone call.... Just enough to let the springs guide it to neutral while you blip the throttle and maybe heel-toe the brake if needed.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by Java Junky

Ummm . . fletch? Not to remove a pastime that you seem to enjoy, but about your love of droppin' down when some bozo's on yerrass . . with all the brain-dead that we're forced to share the road with, not to mention the required cell-phone call in progress while they're tryin' to check their hair in the mirror, seein' in their back seat if little Johnny is, in fact, stickin' the frog in little Gwen's face . . well, it jus' seems to me that it's only a matter of time before one of your tailgaters becomes the first S2 backseat passenger.
N' if you're givin' your pastime the proper concentration (i.e.: to quickly not be in the air space that the offending tailgater will shortly enter) there's always the possibility of the scenery to your front changin' while you're concentratin' aft.
Personal opinion, but there's jus' too many of 'em. The odds ain't in our favor, y'know?
Be well.
(Oh, n' I ain't gonna waste my time apologizin' for my long-windedness. "I yam whut I am, n' 'at's all whut I yam")

Not exactly sure what that translates into but I think you may have misconstrued slightly.
The reason to drop down so ferociously is to leave said tailgater in a cloud of dust as you disappear into the distance.
Tyres squealing and Amuse Exhaust growling at full chat. .... Ahhh bliss.

[fletch]

Like Halo if I want to change 5th or 6th to 3rd or 4th etc, I just use pull, relax slightly, and push. (Just re-read.... oooer sounds a bit )
Try and make no conscious sideways movement, let the springs do the work of centring the stick.

2nd at 70 ? ... yep... Bad idea.
I stick to allowing 30mph in each gear 1=30 2=60 3=90 etc. and if I'm changing down I will deduct another 10mph.
For instance. If I'm doing 80 or more I will only change down to 4th not 3rd. The reasoning being that it's not going to be there long enough before changing up to 4th anyway, but at 70 3rd for sure.
So less than 50 change to 2nd, 50-80 change down to third.
It's all about keeping it in that vtec band.


Now I'm going on a bit.

[Java Junky]

fletch;
Yup. 'At's whut I did. I had visions of you tryin' to make your tailgater get up close n' personal with his windshield. 'Shoulda know'd better.
Be well.

[slimjim8201]

I disagree. I think a 6th to 2nd shift, even once would be the end of the motor. Valves would float or bearings would spin, but something would fail before you got back on the clutch.

A good technique of downshifting my pops taught me back in the day is to let go of the stick for just an instant when you pull it out of the gate, or just ease your grip on it a bit. This lets the springs pull it to center leaving it between 3rd and 4th. I'm not talking about letting it go long enough to change the radio station, light up a cigarette and make a phone call.... Just enough to let the springs guide it to neutral while you blip the throttle and maybe heel-toe the brake if needed.

I don't know about it being the end of the motor. It would depend on just how high the engine was over-revved. Through experience with high performance Honda engines, I would say a "safe" overrev would be no more than 500 rpm. And I use the term "safe" jokingly. There is absolutely no reason to do that besides driver error. There are racing versions of the F20 which rev well past 10,000 rpm, but they are also rebuilt frequently. However, I would wager that revving a stock motor past 10K even once would have dire consequences. Not sure about spinning bearings. Valve float would be a more likely effect or highly stressed conecting rods. Thinki about piston speeds in this motor at 10,000 rpm...its staggering. F1 territory.