Lugging the engine

[mis3]

What does it mean by "lugging the engine'?

I am in traffic everyday in my work commute. Often I will let my SI go by itself (no clutch, no gas, 10KMH in 2nd, 6KMH in 1st)) on the highway. Is this bad for the transmission?

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[Gsnail13]

I was always told not to lug the engine, especially on a turbo set up. It basically means if your in 6th on the highway doing about 2000-2500 rpms don't hammer the gas, downshift and proceed. It's always better to downshift in my opinion unless your within the right rpm range and it isn't necessary. Your engine is working harder then it has too when the rpms are too low. There's a great video on YouTube I believe about lugging a turbocharged car.

 

[17siturb0]

What does it mean by "lugging the engine'?

I am in traffic everyday in my work commute. Often I will let my SI go by itself (no clutch, no gas, 10KMH in 2nd, 6KMH in 1st)) on the highway. Is this bad for the transmission?

Every gear after 1st stay above 2k when accelerating, and you’ll be good.

 

[skullmurdoc]

What does it mean by "lugging the engine'?

I am in traffic everyday in my work commute. Often I will let my SI go by itself (no clutch, no gas, 10KMH in 2nd, 6KMH in 1st)) on the highway. Is this bad for the transmission?

This is not lugging the engine and it is perfectly fine. Gsnail13 explained it well.

 

[grumpyguy6]

Engineering Explained has two good videos on the subject:

 

[250GTCalifornia]

Every gear after 1st stay above 2k when accelerating, and you’ll be good.

Is WoT from 2K RPM on 2/3/4 gears okay?

 

[charleswrivers]

Is WoT from 2K RPM on 2/3/4 gears okay?

Given you have the option to downshift, make more power, and not incur a big torque spike that will occur in that range... it's not as good as downshifting by far.

Big difference between giving some mild throttle and letting the engine run at a minimal vacuum... maybe build a few pounds of boost and being WOT, with no revs to make much power and counting on hitting full boost and the accompanying torque surge to move the car. I can't say if you'll get detonation from lugging the engine in this range. That in itself can cause catastrophic damage. Even if this detonation isn't occurring from lugging, you'd be putting a lot more strain by trying to go WOT at this point.

 

[dmitri]

Also might be worth mentioning that it's not (really) about acceleration, as much as it is about the load on the engine. You can have zero acceleration (i.e. maintain constant speed) but still be lugging the engine, for example if you were going in 5th gear on flat/horizontal road with constant speed, and then tried to maintain that speed, without downshifting, when the road started going uphill.

 

[Deleted member]

To put it simply, lugging the engine means giving it significant throttle when the drivetrain is at a massive mechanical disadvantage. Doing this is very bad for the drivetrain.

Don't be lazy- downshift if you are cruising at low rpm and decide to accelerate rapidly.

 

[Wilefisherman]

I was always told not to lug the engine, especially on a turbo set up. It basically means if your in 6th on the highway doing about 2000-2500 rpms don't hammer the gas, downshift and proceed. It's always better to downshift in my opinion unless your within the right rpm range and it isn't necessary. Your engine is working harder then it has too when the rpms are too low. There's a great video on YouTube I believe about lugging a turbocharged car.

This brings a question I have had rattling around in my cobwebbed brain for a few months. This car is drive by wire. There is no mechanical linkage between our gas pedals and fuel delivery system. So is it safe to say that the computer determines what our cars do with regards to fuel. My questions is: why wouldn't the computer limit fuel or what ever need be to preserve the motor? I still down shift when required/needed. However if I'm doing 70 in 6th, I will still give it gentle acceleration to pass without down shifting. I am not flooring it, but I do step in a bit. The torque is that amazing.

Any thoughts?

 

[charleswrivers]

This brings a question I have had rattling around in my cobwebbed brain for a few months. This car is drive by wire. There is no mechanical linkage between our gas pedals and fuel delivery system. So is it safe to say that the computer determines what our cars do with regards to fuel. My questions is: why wouldn't the computer limit fuel or what ever need be to preserve the motor? I still down shift when required/needed. However if I'm doing 70 in 6th, I will still give it gentle acceleration to pass without down shifting. I am not flooring it, but I do step in a bit. The torque is that amazing.

Any thoughts?

On a stock tune, it does do a fairly good job of that, as it shuffles the amount of boost it targets to reach a certain amount of torque. I think this is based on the cylinder fill portion of the ECU. Stock, it really wont ever reach the OEM boost levels Honda advertised.

That goes out the window on even just a reflash where it'll reach the boost requested. You can be getting a 25% bump in torque at low RPMs where the aptly named 'mechanical advantage' does not exist. Cars running custom tunes are easily getting over a 50% rise over the stock torque levels. This is more of an issue on cars running a reflash or custom tune. If you giving it a bit of throttle at 70 MPH in 6th is just fine. Let your motor get out of vacuum... heck, let it build some boost. You yourself used the word, 'gentle'. Trying to go WOT there and hitting full boost though is putting needless strain on it when you could go to 4th instead and use the revs and albeit less torque to accelerate faster using the higher horsepower that actually exists there. Still, at the stock torque levels, I doubt you could easily break the engine. The engines that broke a month or two back were not running stock boost levels... and there were issues leading up to their failure that could/shoulda/woulda warranted investigating and coming off whatever poor tune/excessive boost levels that we're being run.

 

[mis3]

Thanks guys.
I do lug the engine sometimes at high gears. I will stop.

 

[l15b7allturbo]

Thanks guys.
I do lug the engine sometimes at high gears. I will stop.

And with a tune that's how you end up with clutch slippage

 

[mis3]

And with a tune that's how you end up with clutch slippage

I should be fine.
There is no tune in my SI and I lugged the engine maybe a few times in the past 3 months.

 

[l15b7allturbo]

I should be fine.
There is no tune in my SI and I lugged the engine maybe a few times in the past 3 months.

I learned the hard way lol. Being my first manual I was scared to downshift. Now there's an fx300 and I just broke that in

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