aaronrosencrans
Junior Member
I love going home and part of the reason for it is because of experiences like this one I'm about to tell you guys about.
So what normally happens to an engine when you put it in neutral, set a rock on the accelerator and let it sit at red line for a long time? Most of the time, you throw a rod or it goes boom. Well, let me tell you about the durable motors in a Mazda RX-7 and the Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Now with the RX, I didn't have the pleasure of witnessing this, but some of my buddies attempted to blow the engine by attempting said stunt. They place the rock and step back to watch the show. Thirty seconds go by, a minute and some more time passes before the unbelievable happened. Rather than the rotary engine skipping a beat or several, the guys had to shut it down because the bumper caught on fire because the exhaust system got too hot! End of experiment. The rotary engine passes the test...I figured that would happen. My buddy Mitch said it was like the little roto-man was smiling the whole time. :spank:
Now to the Eclipse. We did the same deal as before and rocked the peddle to the metal. Thirty seconds pass and I have my ears covered. I figured that was a long time for an old engine with pistons to handle that kind of abuse. After a minute of that performance engine refusing to even skip a beat, we all turned to each other in amazement and with a large touch of confusion. How could this motor handle this abuse? If there was a PETA organization for small cars, we'd definitely have picketers stomping around the woods of our secluded household.
Nearly two minutes go by when the grass under the car starts on fire and the coolant hose on the radiator finally blows. We just keep it going at this point; there's no reason to go back on our quest. With an overheating engine, something had to give. We were wrong. No thrown rods, no thrown pistons, no explosions of any kind; that tough little engine simply ceased up and came to a slow, graceful death. It was truly amazing.
My buddies and I were completely taken by the outcome. We all quietly agreed a Mitsubishi wouldn't be too bad of a vehicle to beat on if we wanted to ride around in a cage and go fast. If that little 4-banger could handle that kind of stress, then it could most definitely tolerate my lead foot.
I think the next one we try in the future will be either a Geo Tracker or a Suzuki Sidekick. Stay tuned in the future (probably around Christmas time) for the results!
(EDIT - Added context) I forgot to mention, we used the Eclipse in our gravel pit to race around, take off jumps and just give a general beating. The only reason we had to give her the red line funeral was because the front end gave out and it would no longer go. Not worth fixing.
So what normally happens to an engine when you put it in neutral, set a rock on the accelerator and let it sit at red line for a long time? Most of the time, you throw a rod or it goes boom. Well, let me tell you about the durable motors in a Mazda RX-7 and the Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Now with the RX, I didn't have the pleasure of witnessing this, but some of my buddies attempted to blow the engine by attempting said stunt. They place the rock and step back to watch the show. Thirty seconds go by, a minute and some more time passes before the unbelievable happened. Rather than the rotary engine skipping a beat or several, the guys had to shut it down because the bumper caught on fire because the exhaust system got too hot! End of experiment. The rotary engine passes the test...I figured that would happen. My buddy Mitch said it was like the little roto-man was smiling the whole time. :spank:
Now to the Eclipse. We did the same deal as before and rocked the peddle to the metal. Thirty seconds pass and I have my ears covered. I figured that was a long time for an old engine with pistons to handle that kind of abuse. After a minute of that performance engine refusing to even skip a beat, we all turned to each other in amazement and with a large touch of confusion. How could this motor handle this abuse? If there was a PETA organization for small cars, we'd definitely have picketers stomping around the woods of our secluded household.
Nearly two minutes go by when the grass under the car starts on fire and the coolant hose on the radiator finally blows. We just keep it going at this point; there's no reason to go back on our quest. With an overheating engine, something had to give. We were wrong. No thrown rods, no thrown pistons, no explosions of any kind; that tough little engine simply ceased up and came to a slow, graceful death. It was truly amazing.
My buddies and I were completely taken by the outcome. We all quietly agreed a Mitsubishi wouldn't be too bad of a vehicle to beat on if we wanted to ride around in a cage and go fast. If that little 4-banger could handle that kind of stress, then it could most definitely tolerate my lead foot.
I think the next one we try in the future will be either a Geo Tracker or a Suzuki Sidekick. Stay tuned in the future (probably around Christmas time) for the results!
(EDIT - Added context) I forgot to mention, we used the Eclipse in our gravel pit to race around, take off jumps and just give a general beating. The only reason we had to give her the red line funeral was because the front end gave out and it would no longer go. Not worth fixing.
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