How often do you WOT?

[buster]

This is still regarded as a great way to keep the engine clean inside. For those that manuals, do you WOT on every shift, even if your not bringing the rpms up that high? If you have a manual trans, and you have control over how high the rpms go, wouldn't it be a good idea to WOT as much as possible? WIth an automatic, WOT would result in high rpms/redline shifting. That wouldn't be as good on a continual basis I would think. Thoughts?

 

[55Test]

WOT to high rpms or WOT to normal driving speed rpms? I don't do it very often, but once in a while when I'm merging into highway traffic I'll leave the car in 3rd and floor it til I'm up to the speed limit, then I'll shift to 5th. Is that what you are talking about?

 

[buster]

quote:

---

WOT to normal driving speed rpms

---

Yeah, normal rpms. With a manual, I can WOT on every shift and control how high the rpms go so I was thinking that would be a good practice.

 

[Al]

If you have a real time gas milage readout, you'll see how a WOT owns you. Takes the ecu out of the Closed Loop and says..give me as much raw gas as possible. Just a couple WOT's per tankful kill you. Just my thoughts. I WOT maybe once a tankfull just on general principles. Otherwise never. My gas milage reflects it.

 

[Pablo]

I don't any more or I should say, only when an emergency requires WOT. Gas is just too precious.

 

[LS1-CAMARO]

I have a 2001 Z28, so......... )

 

[JohnBrowning]

Just about every upshift and I still get 29-32 MPG. My UOA while not trophy material are preety good considering I drive my car like I just stole it!

 

[Patman]

Pablo, believe it or not you don't use that much fuel going WOT, it's heavy braking and stop and go traffic which burn a lot of fuel. An engine is actually very efficient at wide open throttle. That's not to say it will get it's best MPG there, but it doesn't kill your overall average if you do a lot of full throttle driving, so long as you don't follow it up with heavy braking afterwards. I'll do a lot of full throttle driving when the roads are dry, but then I coast down to the speed limit afterwards, I don't slam on the brakes. So I still get decent MPG (typically 20 MPG in daily driving, over 30 MPG in highway driving)

 

[Palut]

I WOT whenever I need it. Otherwise I'm pretty gentle on the throttle. Usually WOT comes on the freeway in conjunction with a downshift to 3rd or 4th in order to pass some numbskull left lane hogger. Otherwise, revving to redline at WOT when I get the chance to enter the freeway with a warm engine is fun!

 

[Gary Allan]

I'm at WOT in my 2.5 jeep whenever I hit a four lane. That is, unless the road is empty. It's not a choice thing. WOT may get me to 60 by the time I must merge. Seeing as I've run into people who will actually speed up just to make this a difficult manuver, this too is not enough at times and forces me to intercept my intended lane in a abrupt manner to stiffle the offending driver by getting in front of them at a speed that is substantially lower then theirs. Naturally they could have either moved over ..or just stayed going their original speed ..but they somehow preferred, and in fact constructed, the "high intensity merge".

 

[BigAl]

Engines running unleaded fuel with computer controlled fuel injection don't get as many comustion chamber deposits as engines did in the past. Runs at WOT will stress the engine, waste fuel, and eventually cause accelerated wear. Treat your engine gently and it will last much longer. I won't run WOT except in an emergency situation. My car almost never gets past 4,000 RPM even when merging onto a freeway.

 

[04SpecV]

I usually hit redline atleast once per drive in my car. Most cars seem to be calibrated really rich for WOT. One could probably gain some mileage/power in most cars by having them dyno tuned with a wideband oxygen sensor.

 

[Pablo]

PATMAN - with all due respect, turbo cars with K-jet and duel or triple enrichment schemes use a LOT of fuel at or close to WOT. Power efficient (HP and Torque/cc) but not fuel efficient.

 

[Shannow]

with my turbodiesel, I short shift, and if I'm on a long hill, and holding a decent speed, will WOT it for 20-30 seconds. The petrol engine gets a little Italian tune-up, but only in the lower gears, and give it a few revs as well. W.O.T. and long grades, you can watch the fuel gauge wind down (as Pablo said).

 

[Bill in Utah]

Never. My current Car and Truck are Manuals and one of the major reasons why be buy them (other than they last much longer than automatics) is when you have the cruise control, they don't downshift when ever you get to a little hill. The cruise nails the throttle to WOT most of the time (in automatics) until the speed is close to set. No thanks. In all of my outfits never have the need to. If I needed to go WOT, I prob needed to wait before I got there. All of my outfits (both current and past) are running fine (as long as the headgaskets stay ok in one) . The folks who buy my outfits when I decide to sell are quite happy to get them because I take care of them and they know it. Both in operation and Maintanence. Take care, bill

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

I almost never get WOT on my gas engines. My daily driver doesn't usally see anything over 2800. My jeep will see WOT once in a while, but I built it to abuse it. Injected engines usually are quite clean if maintained properly and I don't see a need to spin an engine faster than is needed. My diesel's see WOT adn full load much of their life, they can see WOT for 10+ miles at a time on a pull. Last night I ran one truck at WOT for a combine 39.3 miles, C15 with 210K miles. But that probably doesn't apply to this thread. Patrick

 

[-Clayton-]

Almost every time I drive. Every year I get older and do it less and less just starting to be not as much fun anymore. I used to have a 82 mazda glc (great little car)1.5 litre that used too see wot constantly I once did a 65 mile stretch on the interstate wide open about 85 to 115mph terrain pending. I only got 12k out of that car, stuck in 4th gear one day, wonder why.

 

[daemonite]

at least once a day...usually when i get off the freeway because I know my car is warmed up. Usually give it WOT from 2nd gear through 4th....

 

[nobadges]

At WOT my injectors are in "full gush" mode and its still burning rich as heck. No fuel economy there. I regularly hit WOT simply because the sound of an open air intake makes me feel good

 

[q2bruiser]

I have read several studies, incluidng one by BMW engineers of all people which state by accelerating to operating speed the fastest one can results in the best overall gas milage. Not sure about low speed stop and go though.