Hi everyone! I'd like to hear your thoughts on the following:
I have a 1995 Protege Z5 5 speed. I know that it's perfectly normal for these cars to have 3000 rpms at around 65 mph, but what if you had to do hours(say 7 hours straight) of highway driving at speeds of 70 mph? I mean, the speed limit on interstates is 70 mph, which on this car equals a little over 3000 rpms. Is it bad for the engine in any way and put that much stress on the engine, or did the people who designed that engine and gearbox also take that into account?
So, what do you guys, who have cars with the same gear ratios do, when you have to do some high speed highway driving - do you try to keep the rpms lower by driving slower, or you don't care and go as fast as the speed limit allows?
Thanks!

 

as long as your motor is broken in, it won't hurt anything to keep it up there for long periods of time.

 

I have a 1996 Protege ES with the 1.8l BP engine and ATX. I keep it in cruise at 70 MPH. At that speed, it is at 2700-2800 rpm. I currently have 186,000 miles on it and have not had to do anything major since I bought it new. Just do regular maintenance and change all fluids and the fuel filter yearly

 

Actually, that kind of driving is easy on the engine. It is the short trips and stop and go driving that is the hardest on the engine and ATX.
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perfectly fine on the engine. Yea stop and go traffic, and heavly acceleration is the bad stuff.