Hit 2nd gear instead of 4th..rev limiter, bad??

[Blue Streak]

I did a stupid thing last night. I wound 3rd gear out, went to hit 4th, but found 2nd. After the rev limiter bounced for almost a 1/2 a second, I took it back out. I didnt give it any gas, and everything seems to be okay. But it my mind it doesnt seems to pull as hard. Could any damage have came out of this if no is present right now? What a stupid thing....

 

[94RT10Ohio]

Many many posts about this. Prepare of some interesting posts. I assume you have a stock shifter, put an aftermarket on it, B&M or something.

As for could it have caused damage, anything is possible.

 

[Russ M]

Easily can cause damage, did you happen to notice how many RPM's the motor reved to? How high did you rev it to in 3rd?

 

[GR8_ASP]

Absolutely you can damage something. The obvious is valvetrain. You could float a valve bad enough to have piston contact. That may result in a bent pushrod or something much worse. You can even have a push rod come out of the rocker arm. You could also skep a timing chain tooth, break a conn rod, bend a valve, fracture a piston or a variety of other things that would make th eengine run poor, or not at all. The rev limiter cannot prevent the engine from overspeeding due to a improper shift. The engine will speed up to what the drive wheels are asking it to do based on the gear ratios. 1/2 of a second would be an eternity in a 3-2 instead of a 3-4 when shifting at redline in 3rd. Good luck.

I would do a compression and leak down test to see if a cylinder is bad and in which way is it bad (i.e. piston or valve). A bore scope could be used to look inside of a cylinder with poor test results to see if the is internal damage.

 

[Blue Streak]

I changed gears in 3rd about 5,200 RPM's. It is running fine and they dont seem to be any problems obvious problems. Ill check the compression to make sure.

What would be the difference in hitting the rev limiter before a gear change or in my situation?

 

[CMilViper]

If your engine sounds the same as it did before, I would bet you are OK.

 

[sbkim]

If I had to wager a guess, I bet you are just fine. I think I've done equally painful things to my Viper and still runs strong. Just keep your ears open for unusual noises and you ass on the seat for strange vibration/performance degradation.

 

[Warfang]

I did a stupid thing last night. I wound 3rd gear out, went to hit 4th, but found 2nd. After the rev limiter bounced for almost a 1/2 a second, I took it back out. I didnt give it any gas, and everything seems to be okay. But it my mind it doesnt seems to pull as hard. Could any damage have came out of this if no is present right now? What a stupid thing....

Heh... here we go again.

I was doing that so often I started second guessing every gear. After clowning me with 10 or so mock posts (Help! ...I can't shift from 3rd to reverse, etc etc etc) the guys here finally set me straight. Shift 3rd to 4th with thumb down palm facing passenger. Took a couple times to get used to it, but haven't missed the shift since.

 

[Russ M]

I changed gears in 3rd about 5,200 RPM's. It is running fine and they dont seem to be any problems obvious problems. Ill check the compression to make sure.

What would be the difference in hitting the rev limiter before a gear change or in my situation?

I think you are fine if you really shifted at only 5200 rpm, your motor probably only just over reved may 6500rpm and it was probably lower than that.

Big difference,

If you hit the rev limiter while in gear the rev limiter will keep your motor from over reving.

When you down shift the rev limiter cannot keep the motor from spinning to the same speed as your drive wheels. Meaning you can easily spin your motor to say 8k if you shift from 3rd 6200rpm to second.

 

[Blade Runner]

Don't forget to clean the stain left in the seat before you get back in the car to practice shifting.

 

[Got Venom]

Warfang is right. If you go to Viper Days, in the classes they give you, they tell you how not to man handle the shift knob. If you use a lighter touch, and rotate your hand like Warfang said, when shifting into 4th, you will never have that problem again. The problem most of us guys have is we muscle the shift knob too much. I also replaced my 4 year old B&M short shifter with a brand new one last week, and it shifts much easier and definitely goes right where it should go. They made some improvements over the model I had, and I am glad I replaced it.

 

[ViperRay]

I have shifted from third to second instead of fourth on the track a couple times but always caught it by quickly depressing the clutch before it hit the limiter.

In addition to the hand position mentioned above, try to be deliberate on your shifts and don't rush them too much.

I have twice gone to 6th from 3rd on the track... man that can really fork you up trying to then find the right gear as you approach the corner!

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I have twice gone to 6th from 3rd on the track... man that can really fork you up trying to then find the right gear as you approach the corner!

Your wasting your time in 6th on the track unless your concerned about gas mileage!!!