OT Modern vehicle engine and transmission longevity

[aostling]

. . . in allot of cases on the flats you would be doing over 130 mph and holding it there for many minutes at a time,

You weren't too keen on Charlotte doing that speed on her Ducati. Have you changed your tune?

[nickel-city-fab]

Yep, full rich and max boost. Slurps down fuel. But when you need it, you need it.

Heh. I had a 1970 chevy Impala with the 396 big block, if you punched it on the uphill going out of town you could watch the gas gauge drop. BUT you would be going 140MPH uphill in a 4500-lb land yacht.

[epicfail48]

Maybe it's a European thing, but we don't tow trailers all that often. I have one, a 3m twin axle, that gets used every 3 or 4 weeks to take junk to the local dump. I probably pull it 100Km a year, and I drive that car around 12,000Km/year. Some cars aren't even permitted to have towbars - my other car is a 3.2L Audi TT, and they're not type approved for a towbar (even though it's a VW Golf floorpan).

Ian

Funnily enough the average american also doesnt tow trailers all too often, despite what advertisements for pickups would have you believe. Sure, theres a segment of the population whos pulling a trailer every week, in fact im sure that some of them will pop up in a few minutes to tell me how wrong i am, but im fairly confident in saying that the majority of american drivers will never pull a trailer. Hell, id wager that fair number of truck owners will never pull a trailer

[PStechPaul]

Heh. I had a 1970 chevy Impala with the 396 big block, if you punched it on the uphill going out of town you could watch the gas gauge drop. BUT you would be going 140MPH uphill in a 4500-lb land yacht.

The gas gauge most likely is just responding to the acceleration and the fuel being pushed toward the rear of the tank, away from the float sensor. When you finally brake or go downhill, it will magically show the tank getting refilled.

[MattiJ]

Of course depends what you drive but 50 to 60 ponies to achieve and hold say 65mph on the flats sounds a little steep,,

60 ponies is all I have in the 1 liter right now and that probably includes the 13 HP electric assist --- the gassers rated 63 hp but im a mile high so take a major hit, it's probably closer to 50, yet it only takes a fraction of gas pedal to cruise at 65, I bet im at around 1/4 throttle if that, zero electric assist doing it --- I bet it takes me under 15 hp's or less but then again the cars drag coefficient is .25 and the lower engine power I have at altitude has a silver lining as the car does not have to push as much out of the way at that speed...

I have yet to do a "power run" but I think the car is capable of about 130mph due to just how slippery it is...

Was yours Honda Insight or something similar?
As it happens I have written excel calculator for this so plugging in Honda numbers was quite straightforward:
65 MPH = 14 HP
130 MPH = 80 HP and infinite straight

Then on the other hand the "average american joe" with large pickup needs about 4x that.

[PStechPaul]

I made an EV calculator using HTML and JavaScript.

http://enginuitysystems.com/EVCalculator.htm

For a 1000 kg (2200 lb) vehicle at 65 MPH on a level road, I also get 14 HP. And 130 MPH shows 66 HP.

A 2000 kg vehicle with 0.5 drag coefficient requires 132 HP under same conditions. And 65 MPH on a 20% slope (or acceleration of 4.3 MPH/sec) requires 179 HP.

[J Tiers]

Funnily enough the average american also doesnt tow trailers all too often, despite what advertisements for pickups would have you believe. Sure, theres a segment of the population whos pulling a trailer every week, in fact im sure that some of them will pop up in a few minutes to tell me how wrong i am, but im fairly confident in saying that the majority of american drivers will never pull a trailer. Hell, id wager that fair number of truck owners will never pull a trailer

When you count in the "yuppie trucks" with the 4 foot beds, even fewer tow, percentage-wise. Those who do, however tend to tow quite a bit. Not always everyday, but.....

It's not averages, though, when YOU are the one doing the towing. What effect does it have on lifetime of engine and drivetrain? The carmakers can go on the averages, but you buy one truck at a time, so averages do not count.

Average-wise, the carmaker would be fine if towing wore out the vehicle in 100,000 miles

[nickel-city-fab]

I don't know about towing, but I do know that trucks used for snow plowing have a very short lifespan around here. As far as actual working trucks, I am completely disgusted by the American market -- Just try finding an actual work truck, instead of some overpriced yuppie mobile. My coworkers and I *daily* carry a thousand pounds of tools and parts around in our trucks at work, and all of it is offroad. FWIW, I have an older Chevrolet S-10 "Colorado" which does this work just fine, with only two wheel drive and 4 cylinders and a stick shift. Everything in my truck is manually operated, no other options or extras on it except for the bedliner.

[J Tiers]

I had an S10 until it started letting me down on the road.

Drove a Colorado.... Worst Truck Ever.

The Ranger would work, 1860lb payload....6 foot bed, room behind the seats, lots more ground clearance than the S10 or Colorado.

[A.K. Boomer]

Was yours Honda Insight or something similar?
As it happens I have written excel calculator for this so plugging in Honda numbers was quite straightforward:
65 MPH = 14 HP
130 MPH = 80 HP and infinite straight

Yes first gen insight --- that puts me spot on with my guesses --- just under 15 HP's and I also stated I think the car could do about 130mph with it's 80 HP...

Then on the other hand the "average american joe" with large pickup needs about 4x that.

ain't that the truth, and probably close to double for a typical mid size car... That's cool you studied that stuff Matt, I was only going off of old numbers I heard for typical cruise speeds for typical cars and then taking a compensating guess for mine...

[A.K. Boomer]

You weren't too keen on Charlotte doing that speed on her Ducati. Have you changed your tune?

I think I got a little protective of her :-)

[nickel-city-fab]

I had an S10 until it started letting me down on the road.

Drove a Colorado.... Worst Truck Ever.

The Ranger would work, 1860lb payload....6 foot bed, room behind the seats, lots more ground clearance than the S10 or Colorado.

There was a lot of years the colorados were crap. Luckily I got one of the better years -- a 2012 with the 2.9 engine. I tell everyone to avoid that 5-cylinder like the plague, the 4-cylinder is much better. I've had very good luck with it.

My employer has Silverado 3500's that I use to haul the bigger tools around the job sites. Welders, air compressors etc. Biggest garbage wagon I've ever had to contend with. You couldn't *give* me a Silverado, and I'm a Chevy fan.

[DS_park]

Battle Power. I know several guys that refer to wide open throttle as the "military power" setting. All well and good until you look at the fuel flow gauge and convert that gallons per hour flow rate number into dollars per second.

Yep, full rich and max boost. Slurps down fuel. But when you need it, you need it.

The venerable Douglas DC-6 had a wet take off setting with water/methanol injection. You could tell it was working as fuel flow would actually drop to a leaner more powerful mixture with the water / methanol providing the anti detonation vs extra fuel. Nothing like the sound of 4 R2800's going down the runway on a takeoff run.

Deviation of this thread from OP noted with no dissent from the OP. As always I learn something from this Forum.

[Willy]

Yes first gen insight --- that puts me spot on with my guesses --- just under 15 HP's and I also stated I think the car could do about 130mph with it's 80 HP...

ain't that the truth, and probably close to double for a typical mid size car... That's cool you studied that stuff Matt, I was only going off of old numbers I heard for typical cruise speeds for typical cars and then taking a compensating guess for mine...

You'll like this guys latest project series, re-powering the Honda Insight with HF Predator series engines.
He gets 50 MPH out of a modified 212cc engine, I think 43 MPH out of the stock 7HP engine. He's working on a 420cc version now and I believe he's going for the big kahuna V-twin in the future to power the Insight.

Check out his videos on the Insight.

We get the Honda insight to go 50 MPH with a lawnmower engine

[MattiJ]

Saab wanted to prove their new turbocharged engine reliability and they drove 60 000 miles flat out at Talladega speedway. Average speed 132 mph including service breaks, fueling and oil changes over the 60 000 miles.
I doubt that even a heavy footed driver crossing the Rocky mountains puts a similar strain to the engine. 😎

oh, and this turbo engine show-off was 35 years ago when they used potato for ECU. 🤣

http://saabworld.net/wp/1987-saab-90...tion-saab-usa/