Engine Inquiry

Before reading this, please note that I am a total noob to car mechanics. I drive a 2000 Dodge Neon and was wondering how much abuse an engine like this can take. Since I don't have an RPM meter, I can only guess how much i'm working my engine. In other words, i'm wondering how much I can get away with before running into problems. Like if I ran it at the 4000 RPM range (my foot's guess) all the time (not all the time, just when accelerating), will it die or have piston problems after a short period of time? Does working engines hard (not constantly flooring it but close to it) severly limit their life? In the past, my brother drove my parents van hard for 45 minutes and the next morning the engine was making a "clicking" noise when accerlerating (piston problem) which as a 3 grand repair.

Again, I know i'm a total stranger to car mechanics, so please bare with me. :uhoh: :iceslolan

Driving at 4000 RPM isn't bad at all, normal shifting points for a manual trans is about 2700 to 3200 RPM. Just in normal driving you probably hit 4000 RPM every day. Your car probably redlines a bit over 6000 RPM, not sure of the real limit but most 4 cylinder engines redline around there.

How much abuse your engine can take all depends on how well you maintain it. A well tuned engine, with all fluids in good shape (oil, coolant, trans) should have no trouble being pushed hard. An engine in poor shape might easily break after a while. I run full synthetic motor oil in my car & keep it in good shape, & I can hit 6900 RPM with no problems at all. Not that I do so on a regular basis, but every once & a while a little bit of hard acelleration shouldn't hurt.

Thanks a lot for the info. :)

Neon, I'd pamper that thing and say a prayer every time I got in it.

It also depends on how long you want it to last. Pushing hard will shorten engine life, compaired to not pushing it.
I had a Lada, 1500 cc and an optomistic 75 hp on a good day. If I wanted to get somewhere, it was redline (6500 rpm) in every gear that it could manage. The engine lasted until I put Bosch Platinum plugs in it. (so say 8 years) The Bosch plugs dropped their insulators into the engine, and that wasn't a fault of driving hard. I got another 2 years out of the engine by adding "no-smoke" syrup to the crankcase.