Italian tune-up

I had the thought on my drive home this evening that the burban spends something like 95% of it's life below 2,000 RPM. And maybe 0.00001% (or less) at WOT.

The answer OTOH lives at redline and WOT so carbon build-up is unlikely to ever be an issue for it.

Back in the day (carburators) it was a requirement to "blow it out" on occasion. In the world of fuel injection and computer how often should one give her the beans and clear the pipes (as it were)?

Obligatory story: in the '90s I knew a mechanic who took care of a little old lady who would bring in her late '60s GTO which never got above 25mph while she had it. It would start to run poorly and she would bring it to Mike for a tune up. He took it out for a blast down the mid cape and would give it back to her purring like a kitten and charge her $40. She loved how cheap it was to get her car tuned up and he got to blast around in an old muscle car, win-win.

I don't know, but for almost 20 years I've driven all of my cars hard, and use the entire rev range (though I'm not at redline all that often), and have never had an engine issue.

Friends of mine who say they "baby" their cars when driving are the ones that always seem to be having engine problems.

YMMV.

I have found some car's still need a smack every once and a while, my Grandmothers Mercury (2008?)which has never seen 45 MPH with her behind the wheel will not run well and set ERG codes after five or six months. I get the call go over clear the codes and bring the car back with it's tongue hanging, all is well.

Paul

A redline a day keeps the demons at bay.

Has been my ethic for almost every car I've ever owned. Most were considered high mileage (north of 150 to over 300) and I've only ever blown up honda d series (on track) mopar small blocks (usually valvetrain failure), and a billion mile gm 2.8 (on track).

Most run better, leak less, and use less oil under my care vs others of similar mileage and maintanance. I credit this to the daily Italian tuneup. ( I AM iItalian. ..)

I'd say a WOT pull to redline or two a day should do the trick. Highway on ramp works. This goes without saying but don't flog it until it's warmed up.

The answer is yes.

When I worked at Comcast, there were guys that drove the vans like grandmas. My buddy got a '06 E-250 as a replacement van. It only had 70k on the odo. I followed him home and when he romped on it to get on the highway, so much carbon smoke came out of the tailpipe, you would have thought it was a diesel for a second.

I do take it to the redline once a week on my vehicles. Seems to keep things happy.

Funny you should ask. Yesterday I got a 2000 Mustang V6 (manual trans) for free. It quit idling on the owner, hadn't been washed in about 10 years, and had been sitting under a tree for a month because he bought something else for a DD. He figured there was no resale value so he let me have it.

True to form, it died at stoplights and in traffic all the way home (actually I just left-foot braked and feathered the go-pedal), I figured I'd clean the throttle body and the IAC valve at my earliest convenience but it's been a while since I've had something fun in RWD so I went out on a bit of a "hoonage run" on some lesser traveled roads.

The car now runs like a champ. Never turned a wrench.

Came here searching for anecdotal evidence to support my preconceived notions. To the redline! Thanks all.

To the redline but not beyond.

My first miata burned oil when I got it. It was to the point it got a little bad and I was thinking the valve seals were going out. Took it to a track day and got it very warm and worked it out hard.

After that, no more oil burning till my neighbor bought it. Then after a few months, it came back.

Just a racing photo because I love it.

I recently acquired a civic with 48k miles on it that I very firmly believe has never even seen vtec, let alone red line. I was actually somewhat concerned for a minute that something could very well be slightly off from lack of proper exercise...

Thankfully, I can report that it has absolutely no issue finding the rev limiter with some surprisingly pleasing intake noises when it does! Also, I am very thankful that my wife has lived with me long enough to witness the occasional Italian tune-up and knows full well that there is good reason to push a car hard every once in a while.

We figure that this one has missed out on several thousand excursions into the red part of the tachometer and that we are simply doing right by it when bouncing it off the limiter.

When I inherited my FIL's 1970 Lincoln, the secondaries in the carburetor were frozen shut.

It's much better now.

I've always regularly wrung out anything I drive. I have yet to have a major engine issue (knock on wood), even on some real high mileage beaters. I do think it keeps things in good order.

I've always heard that if you buy a grandma car that has always been babied you should ease into the upper RPM ranges over time. The theory was that many miles of easy driving could wear a ridge into the cylinder walls at a certain point. When you suddenly go far above the previous RPM range the con rods may stretch enough to slam the rings into the wear ridge, causing ring failure and general Bad Things.

I think this might have been possible in older engines where tolerances were looser and alloys were softer, but I'd be surprised if cylinder walls these days showed wear that was significant enough to worry. Any experiences say otherwise?

In reply to ultraclyde:

I can't see that being a problem unless the rod bearings are so shot you no longer have oil pressure anyways.

I was trying to explain to a non-car person that it's good to exercise the engine up to redline, and you'd thought I was trying to tell them to swear...at Jeasus...at Christmas Mass... in front of the -well you get the point.

I've had it help with both manual and automatic transmissions, too for some reason. The e30 always shifts better after a track day for about the next month, and then I got the Subaru it had these reallly lazy shifts (4eat auto), but a good run through the twisties and exercising the shift gate, which was stuck badly enough I couldn't get it into 2 or 1 for awhile, and it shifts much better. I have no explanation for it, and it's only the second automatic car I've ever had, but I'll take it haha.

One time I took my cousin's G37 for a drive and after I redlined it he told me not to. I asked if it wasn't done break-in yet. He said no, but he just doesn't like to redline it I explained all this stuff to him and told him he should give it a full-throttle run to redline at full op. temp. a few times a week to prevent carbon buildup.

In reply to ultraclyde:

I really was very seriously concerned that some hydraulic thing might be gummed up or a cam lobe area not yet broken in. So far everything seems to be working just fine, but I am still very careful to get her fully warmed up and to only make a few hard pulls every once in a while.

Probably actually nothing to worry about but I would hate to hurt an engine in an attempt to help it run better.

I was visiting my parents a few months ago, and I had to borrow their 1996 Maxima to go pick up my 17 year old nephew at his house. My other 12 year old nephew was with me (who is into cars), and he was talking about how slow the Maxima was. I told him that the car wasn't that slow when it was newer, and since my mother barely ever gives it half-throttle, I decide to show him what an Italian Tune-Up is. That's when hilarity ensued.

The car warbled and sounded weird, and then it puked a HUGE plume of rodent habitat and dead mice out the tailpipe! I had to pull over afterwards because the two of us were laughing so hard.

I'll add my $.02. My BIL and I have essentially the same truck. Early 2000's Chevy 6.0 2500. Similar kms (about 240,000) etc. I run mine pretty hard. It sees WOT to the shift points several times per week. I pull big hills in the mountains with my 7500 lb 5'er with my foot on the rug in 2nd gear at 4500 rpm etc. His gets babied. Even when he tows through the mountains, he just slows way down because he doesn't like to work his truck and doesn't think the rpm is good for it. I've told him many, many times that it's a small block LS for cryin out loud. Let it have some fun!

My truck runs awesome. His uses oil, runs very sluggishly, idles rough, throws CEL's etc. It's enough evidence for me.

My '99 Vitara had 91kmi on it when I got it from the previous owner's estate. She'd put 20kmi on it over the previous 10-years, and we confirmed it had never once been out of town or over 45mph in that timeframe.

It ran much better after some spirited driving.

Im a firm believer in the italian tuneup like I see most of us here are. Everything I run gets the goose even dads 300,000 mile 5.4 expedition he thinks will explode at any moment, dont tell him ive been keeping her running tip top with the ye old italian tune up. Im also a firm believe in not breaking in motors, wot seals the rings much better than taking it slow for 500mi

di-engines need them due to carbon buildup

Once or twice a week I try to get on the throttle pretty hard in the Abarth, but only after its warmed up.

While I don't WOT every day I do run the RX8 to close to redline when I drive it. The "answer" gets to the limiter when autocrossing and regularly high rpms. My wifes car gets hard throttle use when I drive it but being an AT it doesn't see high revs often. Never had an issue with any my vehicles. My mom that lives in California has to take her appliance to her mechanic and he adds some fuel treatment and blows it out right before emmisions testing.

ultraclyde wrote: I've always regularly wrung out anything I drive. I have yet to have a major engine issue (knock on wood), even on some real high mileage beaters. I do think it keeps things in good order. I've always heard that if you buy a grandma car that has always been babied you should ease into the upper RPM ranges over time. The theory was that many miles of easy driving could wear a ridge into the cylinder walls at a certain point. When you suddenly go far above the previous RPM range the con rods may stretch enough to slam the rings into the wear ridge, causing ring failure and general Bad Things. I think this might have been possible in older engines where tolerances were looser and alloys were softer, but I'd be surprised if cylinder walls these days showed wear that was significant enough to worry. Any experiences say otherwise?

Gm 305's and 307's used to be bad for that. I've seen a couple broken piston rings with very large ridges on teardowns. I don't think it is an issues with anything modern but I've seen it on engines from the 60s & 70s.