At what rpm's do you guys normally shift at? I've been keeping it safe and up-shifting at 3/3.5, but it seems I'm not getting much acceleration power.

Would I do damage to the engine if I shift near red line?

 

180 peak power is between 2.5-5.5k
225 add 500rpms

Your just using the tq spike and shifting and taking the rpms back to low. For fastest accl, shift at 5.5k for 180 and 6k for 225

 

Is that right...and that won't harm the engine?

 

Normal driving, I shift around 3.5k, 3k if it's still cold.

Engines are designed to be reved, and I'm sure it could handle it if you did frequent oil changes... but, could you handle all the wasted gas?

 

The stock redline is 6800 and with a chip is 7200. The head can rev to 8k easy on stock parts. Both the engine and tranny are fine shifting up there. Its when you start getting past 7k the fwd tranny starts to have problems and the awd tranny (both have 02M) is a little better. So go nuts, you are not going to hurt anything.

 

^^what he said. the boost isnt going to kick in very much at 2.5-3K. you want to take it higher if you want to get the TT to kick into action.

personally for daily driving when its cold i will shift at 3.5K, once it warms up and in regular weather i bring it to about 4-4.5K.

obviously for very spirited driving bring it all the way up 5K+ =)

 

SInce you have a 180, this is what your powerband looks like with a chip and exhaust.



Those are fwd #'s, so if you have awd, its down a few more ponies.

In that dyno you can see how the tq spikes up and as it falls off the hp come up and flattens off at 5k and starts to drop of shortly after. You want to shift at 5-5.5k so you go back down to where you are near peak tq again (~3k)

 

Cool! I'll keep all of this in mind. I guess I can stop babying her now.

 

Once my car is warmed up I shift just below redline, every shift.

 

Thats because you like to **** money away since your not making any more power up there and just wasting gas, but you know that already