ls2pontiac

iTrader: (1)

I need to know now before I head out on my annual 3 hour trip to a big *** car show this summer. Every year, on the turnpike, we cruise at 100-115 mph the whole time, which is about 3000-3500 on my GTO. Its also an automatic, so Im sure it builds up a lot of extra heat doing that. But I do have a trans cooler on it.

What I would like to know is am I killing the engine doing this? It sits at a steady 3000 RPM for about an hour at a time. Sometimes I slow down for cops, or speed up to 140 for a brief 20 seconds or so. So it's not going to literally sit at 3k the entire trip. It is varied. Someone said my bearings and valvetrain will be worn out and the engine will blow if I keep doing that. Is there any merit to that claim? My oil is always full and its always Mobil 1 5w-30. I usually go 6000 between changes and I always drive at least 15 miles at a clip before shutting it down.

Should I change my coolant or anything before I do this again? Should I get rid of the car? I drove it pretty damn hard in the last 20k miles. It has 24k on it now. I usually redline it 3-4 times a day.

Thanks for the opinions.

95FbFormula

iTrader: (25)

Why not drive slower? Either way no it probably wont hurt it just cause a lot of heat in the tranny. do a fresh oil change and head out.

s346k

iTrader: (4)

your trans will die before your engine does. just keep the oil full and you won't have any problems from the engine. heating, circulating, and changing the oil is what keeps an engine alive - i see it as you doing the motor a favor. don't worry about the bearings as these engines oil themselves wonderfully, i've seen many sets of bearings come out of 130k+ mile motors that have been abused and they looked great.

zman1969

iTrader: (91)

I'm sure GMs durability testing is alot harder than that, they do stuff like 5000rpm for 24 hours(or worse) , I wouldnt be so worried about tranny heat as it should be "locked" up and no slipping , not saying it wont break down but what your doing shouldnt kill it

Gordon0652

iTrader: (4)

RPMs dont kill your trans. But very hard acclerations will, that causes more strees than staying at a very high RPM, you should be fine. Your cooler is mostly ment for hard times for your trans. And i dont think going fast is one of them.
You should be more worried about you geting hurt on the street, or even worse someone else at thoes speeds, rather than worring about your car...
Have fun, and be safe with driving that fast!

Busted Knuckles

No way you're gonna make a 3 hour cruise at 115, you'll have to be on and off of it quite a bit. Offshore boats run hydraulic roller engines at 5000 - 6000 for hours, loaded a lot harder than your LS will be. Make sure all your fluids are top-shelf, give everything a good once-over and get 'er done.
That said, 115mph for any length of time is reckless and irresponsible. A short blast from time to time is understood - EXPECTED, actually, with a high performance ride - but not for a cruise. You choose to risk your own life, your fellow highway users choose to drive sensibly and don't want to be part of your chest-thumping rush. Slow the f*&# down, save your engine and maybe a life or two. Just my .02

Scoggin Dickey

iTrader: (34)

Old 4-speed cars and the typical non-overdrive auto cruise the highways at 70mps turning 3K rpms their entire life span, and I think your GTO is built with a little better parts than they were
Unless there is something wrong before you ever leave, cruising at that rpm shouldn't have any effect at all other than fuel mileage etc.

corvette_uae1

i drive my car once a month for 3 hours while im speeding 260 km and 4000 rpm with my c6 and nothing happened .

3000rpm seems fine

scv8

No problem! My LS2 runs 3k every day (short 5th gear designed for 4 banger). It loves it and gets good gas mileage as well.

ls2pontiac

iTrader: (1)

Thats good to know. Thanks. What about redlining it a lot, will this reduce the life of the engine by a lot? I only do it when I have to, but that happens a lot because i always pass people. So i guess cruising at 4000 will be the same, not bad?

Gordon0652

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like you need to slow down a lot.
If you slow down you wont need to worry about these things, like stated above have some respect for others on the road.
I know your going to say "but i am careful, and i am a good driver" that doesn't mean anything; freak things can happen and it may not get you killed but it might get the 3 year old in the other car killed. ****, i couldn't live with myself knowing if i did something like that.

The sad part is that i am 18 years old, and i am telling you should slow down. I should be the disrespectful driver and think i can do whatever on the road. Not you, cause i am imaging your a bit older since you are a business owner(says in your profile) and probably have more driving experence.

Some people just shouldn't own fast cars



EDIT:

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

I'm sorry, but I've got to agree, 110%... We all "get on it" from time to time, but an extended run like described above is nothing short of idiotic.

I know there will probably be plenty of people here that disagree with me, & plenty that think that it'll never happen to them, but damn, there are more than a few others who found out that it COULD happen to them, & there's nothing you can do to bring someone back, or turn back the clock when it does happen... I've come close, & honestly, it scares the hell out of ya...

Honest to God, I'm not trying to preach - I love it as much as anyone here. But between the stuff I mentioned above, & having a cop pull me over for FELONY speeding within the last couple of years, I feel like I've kind of "waken up" in a way. (WHY in the heck he let me go, I don't know, but I'm still thankful! Hearing him say 'felony' after taking my keys scared the $#&@ outta me...)

Like I said, I still love it, I'm actually building my car to run 150+ - but I'm just gonna be doing it in a controlled situation...

Just my $.02...

adillhoff

I still don't understand how driving 115 in a straight line is dangerous. It's not like the weather conditions are bad. I mean, what could happen? It would be different doing that on a back road or a road with low visibility... but a straight line. I never cruise at 115 because I don't feel I need to, but come on...

BigRich954RR

iTrader: (1)

ive done the same trip in pa i think last time i went we had a group of 7 cars holding about 100 mph c5 /z28/trans all ran fine. for the guys saying to slow down the whole group was still gettting passed. If its the road and show im thinking of people fly on that road. cops dont even look at you if you only doing 100 on it. but 115 and up is pushing it stay closer to 100 -105 or they might nail you. remeber they use planes/cams/helos

Busted Knuckles

You have no control over the idiot that wasn't paying attention and switched lanes in front of you. Or grandma, who sees cars coming and KNOWS she has plenty of time to merge/switch lanes/cross traffic. **** happens...really, really fast at speed. Take your own life in your hands if you want to, but leave the rest of us the hell out of your games, thank you very much.

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

That's pretty much what I was saying - I had someone in a utility truck switch lanes in front of me last week, I was doing about 40, he was doing maybe 10-15 or so. Wouldn't have been a big deal, except that the roads were snow-covered, & he did it when I was maybe 75 or 100 feet away from him.. I was able to steer out of it, but...

You just can't cover ALL of the possibilities...

Gordon0652

iTrader: (4)

Sorry, i never answered the question above.
Yes you can hold that speed, and your engine will be more than happy to hold that RPM, just think theo, the more RPMs the more ware. But you dont need to redline to pass someone unless its in a very short distance.
But give me a break constant 115 on the street and maybe sometimes 140...

Scotty_82

iTrader: (1)

That's right.
And throw the occasional "deer-across-the-road" into the mix.........
Or the "came-out-of-nowwhere" pothole...... Things can get ugly in a heartbeat at those speeds.

jermzz

iTrader: (18)

Stop crying and trying to change peoples habits. If he wants to cruise at 115mph, let him do it. I'm sure he's well aware of the consequences and doesn't need people jumping down his throat when he's asking questions.

OP: No problem. long distance driving even at 3k rpm is better for the motor then your average commuter who only drives a few miles to work, the store, mall, etc all the time never giving the motor a chance to fully warm up. Not the best for gas mileage, but yeah. good luck.

jermzz

iTrader: (18)

Never have I EVER seen a deer on a major freeway or turnpike. Alive or dead. And at 115 mph, a pothole will most likely feel smaller then at 65. It'd have to be one big *** pothole to make you lose control. As soon as you hit it, it'd be over. Ive even seen front tire blowouts at 130 mph racing where nothing happened.

There's always a danger when driving. At any speed. Only thing I'd agree with is idiotic unpredictable drivers. There's a lot of stupid people out there that drive, not paying attention to the cars around them, etc. They are mostly the reason high speed driving is dangerous, IMO.