Thanks I have not owed a Z3 and just didnt know what was acceptable for rpms
Force
I have a dodge van that at 70 it is about 2500 so I just didnt know
Thanks
To both of you
tohbi
01-19-2012, 11:07 AM
i'm not real familiar with the 1.9. is this an undersquare engine like the 6 cylinder engines?
i like undersquare engines [stroke longer than piston diameter] because they tend to give good torque, meaning good power down low on the rpm band. for a street car this is optimum, imho. for the track, high rpm narrow powerband is usually best.
long stroke means higher piston speeds than short stroke designs at same rpm. this means greater piston wear and/or damage over time. but pistons are so well designed today that we seldom hear of problems.
your little 4-banger engine has a short enough crankshaft that you shouldn't need to worry about distortion at high rpm. the 6 cylinder is more problematic but this is compensated by numerous and wide crank bearings. the great thing about the 6 cylinder is that we can drive them at fairly low rpm because they make such good power down low, thereby giving less wear and better mileage. but the ability to rev when needed is still there.
imho, my car could do well with an overdrive. i don't prefer cruising over 3k rpm and our freeways put me at 3500 at 75mph but the engine is designed for it.
nfunk
01-19-2012, 04:10 PM
I have a 1998 Z3 2.8 L and I get 3500 rpm doing 80 MPH while my Toyota Highlander 3.0L gets 3000 RPM at 80 MPH. Bottom line, the Z3 is a lot more fun to drive!
tohbi
01-19-2012, 05:15 PM
my speedo says 80, too, at 3500 rpm but these speedometers are notoriously optimistic, they say 5-7 mph.
nfunk
01-19-2012, 05:56 PM
True, next time I will have to check it with my Garmin GPS for accuracy.
nfunk
01-21-2012, 04:34 PM
Ok, just checked the speedometer against a Garmin GPS. Doing a constant 80 mph the GPS showed 77 mph, which isn't bad, and I like the error to be on the low side then high side.
