WOT pulls, how often?

SDAlexander8 said:

This thread is about whether the CVT can handle being pounded WOT every day, not the Si. The Si was built to be taken to redline. Taking the CVT to red line by putting the pedal to the floor makes no sense. The power curve drops off fast in the higher revs.

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gtman said:

The 1.5 turbo has a beefed up CVT from the Accord. JR from KTuner tested his EX-T for thousands of miles before his tunes even went beta. Many of those miles had WOT pulls. He was totally impressed with the robust-ness of the CVT. Yeah that's right, his tunes were originally designed for a CVT 10th gen, not a manual. Hondata's tunes were originally CVT only as well.

http://ktuner.com/ktuner-civic-x-testing/

Derek who created the TSP tune, designed the tune with an incredible top end. Reason being? It's not the high rpms that's the issue for the CVT, it's too much low end torque that's the enemy.

No one is saying to constantly go WOT, but these cars handle it fine. Matter of fact an occasional spirited drive is probably better than never going beyond 1/2 throttle. The trick with the CVT is not to launch it but do WOT at speed.

And for the record this thread is about WOT pulls so even though the OP has a CVT, I don't see why Si guys can't respond to a member saying my car will blow up.

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charleswrivers said:

I kind of don’t get where this came off the rails? WOT pulls doesn’t mean you’re exceeding or bouncing your engine off the rev limiter. Also, I’d assume the CVT would be programmed to make the engine RPMs to rise to peak power and stay there, then dynamically change gearing to allow speed to increase. This ought to be around 5500-6000 RPM. A CVT equipped car *shouldn’t* hit the engine rev limiter unless the software is altered. Without some different boost targets (the cars do have a boost taper on at least the reflashes) or, even more, a different turbo, CVTs should stick it at peak power. I figure they’d also force up/downshifts if you were trying to play manual mode.

OP, if you can’t aggressively drive a car without it falling apart, then its so fragile it’s probably not worth having. There are no warnings I see in the manual about redlining our cars other than staying you may feel a jolt (fuel cut) and for the manual guys not to downshift such that you’d exceed redline (money shift). My Z31s talked about not racing an engine at idle for greater than a minute and the Z32 discussed use of different plugs if you were maintaining high engine speeds/loads for an extended period of time. There’s nothing in ours to limit operation at/near redline. The car makes peak power over the 4500 RPMs you’ve pushed it to. It’s there to use if you want it. CVTs are an acquired taste... and while it may feel unnatural at first to have engine RPMs hang while the speedometer keeps counting it, you may be surprised, even on a stock tune, how quick the little car can accelerate by it providing constant peak power.

I drove a few slower CVT equipped cars that were lackluster. I recall test driving a VQ35 equipped Altima with a CVT and not being wild about its torque limiting off the line, but as a pinned the throttle to go on a long on ramp and looked down wondering what was wrong as the engine went to just under redline and just droned on and on... I looked over and saw the speedometer was nearing triple digits. CVTs definitely make the most of what engine power there is in a straight line.

I’ve never tried a CVT equipped L15B7 powered Civic, but I’m sure it’s as quick as a straight line as my Si until 80 or so as I get to 4th and keep on pushing it. The Sis are fun to row and would handle better, though non-Sis handle fine in their own right. This has been proven. Instrumented tests for a down-on-power EX-L w/a CVT and a Si when the Si has all-seasons are within .1 sec for both their 0-60 and 1/4 mile. If the Si driver makes the slightest mistake, he’s sunk.

...and I agree, the forums aren’t quite what they were when I first joined. Maybe it’s because we’ve figured out how much you can wring out of the cars on their stock turbos and the TSP reflashes have been out for over a year, at least the Si pump gas one. The cars are still a bit new to get overly experimental for the average joe but also new enough a lot of fixes for things haven’t been shared because they’re being handled by the 3 yr/36000 mile warranty for most. I hate that Vits blogs which were a wealth of info, are gone. I really enjoyed reading them and making/reading random posts about digging into Ktuners functionality when I was modifying my basemaps.

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The Vyzitor said:

That is fantastic information to know, thank you! Do you know what Honda did to the trans to beef it up? I know the WRX is available with a CVT and they’re not exploding on every street corner, so a CVT must have some kind of performance potential if built correctly

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The Vyzitor said:

so what about going WOT but short “shifting” with the paddles to avoid the higher RPMs? Is that beneficial or not really

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SiGeddy said:

I feel like a rarely floor it in my Si since I've been tuned. Whenever I have its usually in 2nd gear and the stock all seasons just spin, so it's not enjoyable.

Maybe after I upgrade my tires that will change tho

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