OK guys, I finally got my car on the road (I was waiting to take the Lesabre to the junk yard before putting the Bonne on the road). The car is a '96 SE with 117k on it. I don't know the previous service history but the car seems to run great.

However, this evening I got back from a drive (the car was running fine) and I wanted to rev the engine up to redline to see how smooth it was. I had the transmission in Park. The car would not rev past 4k! Is this normal or what?

Admittedly I haven't given it full throttle out on the roads yet (roads are still icy around here) but I think this sure doesn't sound normal.

Here is a video so you can hear the engine. The picture isn't that great because it was night time but you can make out the tach needle.

(Link to video removed, we know this is normal)

If its not normal, what do you think it is? Time for new plugs, wires, coils, etc?

Thanks for the time and help.

--Chris[/url]

Revving the car in park or neutral is absolutely the worst thing you can possibly do. That'* why your PCM limits it to 4K, to protect the engine. Don't ever do that, even to 2k.

Interesting! Is there a reason why? Does it hurt the emissions components? Transmission? Thanks for the heads up!

Bad for the ENGINE. If it'* not under load, there'* no resistance. Things (like your valvetrain and pistons) are flying around in there.

This is a built in safety feature in the PCM programming, and it SHOULD be lower. Revving the car in Park or Neutral serves no purpose, and causes damage. If you're not driving and in gear, what'* the point?

Gotcha, thanks. I didn't sit there and do it for a long time (maybe 4 or 5 times in the video?). Hopefully everything is OK. Thanks for the quick response Bill.

Hahahaha no, don't worry, I don't do this at all with my cars. I did it tonight just to see if the engine was smooth (no backfires, wasn't vibrating, bad engine mounts, etc.). Now that I know the reason behind the rev limiter I won't do it at all.

I remember when I bought my car to have it O.K'd by a mechanic, they reved it like that for 5 minutes strait! :o

Yup that'* your limiter. And I agree it should be lower.

If you want to know what happenes when you rev to 6000rpms in P, ask my brother. He did it ALL the time in his 1990 Firebird, which he doesn't drive anymore.

The limit is actuall under 25 MPH i think we determined a few months ago? Something like that. If it'* rev limted @ 4k it won't slow down to dead even 4k, it'll still run over, which is why it'* used over the factory limiter.

Why bill? Well with your magnaflow....