"Italian Tuneup"

[HowAboutThis]

Interested in opinions and thoughts from the all of you, knowing they'll be all over the map.

2017 Corolla has "D" for drive and "S" for sport mode. As an aside, "S"-mode is scary given the outright power Corolla's have under their hood. When in "S", it's hard not to chirp the tires when lightly feathering the throttle when a red light changes to green.

Anyway, back to the actual question: Is there a benefit to driving in "S" on, say, a 45 mile highway trip to keep RPM's around 3K instead of under 2K? You know, the old "Italian Tuneup" or "Blow the carbon out" type of thinking?

Opinions (based on fact or fiction) in 3-2-1...

 

[fantastic]

The only time I think I'd need extra power is when RPM's are down low not ripping down the highway for miles & miles.

 

[f355spider]

The difference between the normal or "D" mode and the sport or "S" mode is not going to have any significant difference in the engine performance after a long drive. I have seen what a true "Italian Tune Up" does on a dynometer...there will be a few extra horsepower by the third and fourth runs. But we are talking 6 or 7 hp on a 500 hp car, and all runs are done to redline, or slightly beyond.

If you want to "try" and make a difference, put it in either mode and on a freeway on ramp, from a stop, run it up to 80 mph by mashing the throttle. Do this 4 or 5 times in a row. You may experience a couple hp improvement, but you will likely not be able to tell. Can you tell the difference between 129 hp and 131hp?

 

[HowAboutThis]

The only time I think I'd need extra power is when RPM's are down low not ripping down the highway for miles & miles.

It's a normal Corolla, so my chirping the tires and scary power comment was mildly sarcastic. Ok, highly sarcastic. But in terms of the title, "Italian Tuneup", is there a benefit to driving in "S" here and there on longer highway trips? Significant enough to do, or a waste of time and gas?

 

[HowAboutThis]

The difference between the normal or "D" mode and the sport or "S" mode is not going to have any significant difference in the engine performance after a long drive. I have seen what a true "Italian Tune Up" does on a dynometer...there will be a few extra horsepower by the third and fourth runs. But we are talking 6 or 7 hp on a 500 hp car, and all runs are done to redline, or slightly beyond.

So, you're saying I should drive it in "B" mode with even higher RPM's? Haha! I was kind of thinking it would be a waste. But interested in opinions and random discussion about it. Kind of fun to see the "S" and pretend it's not a Corolla for a moment...LOL

 

[f355spider]

It's a normal Corolla, so my chirping the tires and scary power comment was mildly sarcastic. Ok, highly sarcastic. But in terms of the title, "Italian Tuneup", is there a benefit to driving in "S" here and there on longer highway trips? Significant enough to do, or a waste of time and gas?

Waste of time, and very slight waste of gas.

 

[fantastic]

It's a normal Corolla, so my chirping the tires and scary power comment was mildly sarcastic. Ok, highly sarcastic. But in terms of the title, "Italian Tuneup", is there a benefit to driving in "S" here and there on longer highway trips? Significant enough to do, or a waste of time and gas?

Personally, it sounds like a waste of gas & potential extra wear but that depends on what you want.

 

[KGMtech]

I know that the Italian tune-up does help with reducing the buildup on intake valves for GDI engines, so for this reason alone it's my justification for doing so on the on-ramps or other locations that safely allow. YMMV.

As a Blues Brother once said " Holy Mother of passing gear acceleration, don't fail us now!"

 

[Oliveoil2]

I know that the Italian tune-up does help with reducing the buildup on intake valves for GDI engines, so for this reason alone it's my justification for doing so on the on-ramps or other locations that safely allow. YMMV.

As a Blues Brother once said " Holy Mother of passing gear acceleration, don't fail us now!"

This^^^^. When traffic permits always rev it out while merging on a highway, at least a few times a week. No need to drive it at high RPMs for long periods. On ramps a few times a week is all you need. Just make sure the engine is nice and hot before you do it.

 

[GMBoy]

No benefit to driving in S mode unless you are wanting the little but more aggressive tuning. Driving in S is not the same as an italian tune up. The italian tune up is foot to the floor hard acceleration with shifts at redline. Doing that periodically is beneficial in my opinion. Driving around in sport mode does nothing like the Italian tune up.

 

[Mainia]

It will only make a difference to you if you drive very aggressively all the time. 4-5 runs down an on ramp may knock off some micro carbon bits, but then what. Grandpa driving style for the next 3 months? A nephew use to work at the Audi/Porsche dealership, and the people who had less carbon issues where the tuner cars or the people they knew drove aggressively. We do know one of the Valvoline oil engineers said there was very slight data that the use of their Valvoline Restore and Protect was doing "something" to valve carbon, but it was not yet definitive to state it as fact yet. I can only assume this is through valve guide leakage, valve overlap fuel and micro oil in that fuel, and/or PVC vapor charge going back over the intake valves. Who knows at this point, it could all be bs.

 

[CleanSump]

Italian tuneups were to burn/blow the accumulated carbon off the piston tops, combustion chamber, and valves. Cruising on the highway in S mode won't do that. Use a good PEA fuel additive and you won't have build up to burn off.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

I still remember as a kid hearing dad say to mom his car ( 1972 Plymouth 383 Big Block Station Wagon ) needed a road trip or he needed to go "Blow The Car Out" as I kid of 6 or 7 years old I kinda wondered what that was as it sounded like a awful thing to do to a car...

Now 54 years later I think, say and do the same thing to whatever I'm driving! I drive everything I own hard, aggressive but with care. Me blowing my car out is a mix of upper highways speeds and some wide open throttle to redline and back so it make no difference if I'm in a sport mode or not. If I'm feeling Extra Sporty I may dump a bottle of Techron, Gumout, Red Line, something with PEA in the gas before a 2-3 hour highway trip!

I owned a 2.0 Ford Fusion turbo that I enjoyed the quick feel and I drove it hard but I didn't like the shift points when in Sport mode and enjoyed simply driving it hard in normal mode, then I owned a Hellcat that never came out of Sport mode so I think it depends on the car but wide open throttle and blowing carbon out is wide open throttle and reline RPMs no matter what mode the car is in. Im no expert but my my thinking anyway?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Interested in opinions and thoughts from the all of you, knowing they'll be all over the map.

2017 Corolla has "D" for drive and "S" for sport mode. As an aside, "S"-mode is scary given the outright power Corolla's have under their hood. When in "S", it's hard not to chirp the tires when lightly feathering the throttle when a red light changes to green.

Anyway, back to the actual question: Is there a benefit to driving in "S" on, say, a 45 mile highway trip to keep RPM's around 3K instead of under 2K? You know, the old "Italian Tuneup" or "Blow the carbon out" type of thinking?

Opinions (based on fact or fiction) in 3-2-1...

Naw. The car will just run richer to reduce combustion temps which can add more carbon to the ring lands and the intake valves will never get hot enough to burn off anything attached to them.

Instead run a bottle of Redline Si-1 occasionally.

 

[melk]

Pretty sure an important part of the tune up is not just the WOT to bring up temps and get things cooking but then to SNAP off the throttle so the TB plate closes completely creating high vacuum to really suck the crud out.

 

[HowAboutThis]

Pretty sure an important part of the tune up is not just the WOT to bring up temps and get things cooking but then to SNAP off the throttle so the TB plate closes completely creating high vacuum to really suck the crud out.

You are all crushing my dreams of driving my Corolla like a race car.

 

[HowAboutThis]

Naw. The car will just run richer to reduce combustion temps which can add more carbon to the ring lands and the intake valves will never get hot enough to burn off anything attached to them.

Instead run a bottle of Redline Si-1 occasionally.

I run Top Tier all the time. I mean, it's a Corolla, so I'm pretty certain with even moderately poor maintenance the engine will last 300K miles. But yeah, probably better but less fun.

 

[edyvw]

Interested in opinions and thoughts from the all of you, knowing they'll be all over the map.

2017 Corolla has "D" for drive and "S" for sport mode. As an aside, "S"-mode is scary given the outright power Corolla's have under their hood. When in "S", it's hard not to chirp the tires when lightly feathering the throttle when a red light changes to green.

Anyway, back to the actual question: Is there a benefit to driving in "S" on, say, a 45 mile highway trip to keep RPM's around 3K instead of under 2K? You know, the old "Italian Tuneup" or "Blow the carbon out" type of thinking?

Opinions (based on fact or fiction) in 3-2-1...

That is Corolla's "suspension," or torque steer.
2k rpm, 3k rpm, does not really matter.
HWY driving will clean up a bunch of stuff. If it is dual injection, it will help get rid of CBU. If it is a port, the highway is the best way to address deposits.
Now, if you really want an Italian tune-up, find yourself a track and beat the crap out of an engine.

 

[goblin]

At the end of my very scientific attempt to beat the record on how long would the original spark plugs last on a car that had gone through 1qt of oil per 1000 miles for the last 50k miles (one plug fouled at 142k miles in atrocious condition, the others held), I was finding the engine to run noticeably better in Sport mode. Not that it ran better - it ran more normal. In Eco mode it was running worse - at equal rpm. It's like the attempts of the computer to deliver as little fuel as possible in Eco resulted in noticeable degradation, whereas Sport mode was sortakinda ok.
I would suspect more fuel is delivered in Sport mode. I could be wrong.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

When I take my wife's Pilot about a mile from the house is a 2-3 lane each direction more major road. Pilot is warmed enough by then and I run it in 1st and 2nd until VTEC kicks in (around 5500 rpm) to redline shift. Need to make sure VTEC gets exercised .

My Accord is 6MT so it very frequently sees full throttle to almost redline combined with high rpm TB closed no throttle still in gear. I like 6MT just gives that more sporty fun to drive thing on to highways etc. Rumor has it that the rev limiter kicks in at about 6500 rpm .