I would like to say that Rez your instructor is right, to a point, and so is redneck to a point.......

Once a engine warms up it has oil flowing around almost every part that moves, and it helps reduce friction and wear on the engine, BUT, a engine that is a "city" car or drives in what is deamed harsh conditions, alot of stop and go driving, IE city driving or light to light driving. That is hard on a car and its components. A car that is at cruising speeds, 55mph + that is aloud to stay at those speeds for extended periods have less wear on the internal components than one that has to slow down and stop every half mile or so then accelerate back up to 35 to 55 mph and then stop again for the next light. This is also why you get better milage on the highway than you do driving around the city. If you let your car cruise at 35MPH till you ran out of gas you would get GREAT milage and would find its no harder on the car than doing 70mph for the same distance. (( granted you cant go WOT to get to 70mph to get these results))

But there are alot of other factors that must me taken into account when looking at this, size of car (vehicle GVW), size of engine (displacement/HP), ECU mapping (for milage and drivablility) and drivetrain gear ratios ( what is the best cruising speed for least load on engine). These are some of the biggest things you have to look at. You instructor is right like I said to a point, and so is Redneck, to a point. To sum it all up the hardest thing you can do to a engine is quarter mile racing, HARD accelration= high load on engine= more load on internal components that means they will fail sooner. On the inverse the easiest thing you can do is Talladagga NASCAR style race with a drivetrain setup to alow for a low load on the engine and highspeed applications like that. This pretty much sums up what I wanted to say before Wes locked the thread. I hope this helps alot of you out there with your missunderstandings on engine wear.

actually the reason why you get so much better gas mileage on the highway is becsue it would take around 15-20hp to sustain a cruising speed, when the hp it takes to acelerate a car from a stop or from higher speed with wind resistance, and taller gearing hurts gas mileage as it take much more hp.

the reason why manufacturers put overdrives in cars is because you can slow down the engine speed as it maintains a speed to further reduce gas mileage, but if you try to acelerate in overdrive, its goin to use up more fuel.

So what I'm hearing here is me driving 180+MPH is easer on my car than running the 1/4 in 10's? j/k

By the way Hodo, good post even for a southern boy. Wait a minute, I'm more southern than you. I live in Mexico.

Albert your not southern.... your WAY southern.... They barely speak english here, they dont even speak english there... or anything like it.

Albert your not southern.... your WAY southern.... They barely speak english here, they dont even speak english there... or anything like it.

Mr. Hodo, There you go saying crap without doing your homework. I'll have you know Dallas, Texas is further south than San Felipe, Mexico....and we speak spanglish here. :lol2:

yea but Texas IS part of Mexico. :p

Texas is it's own damn country... steers and queers.... steers and queers....