87_rocket

Just purchased an 87 N/A and i was wondering whats a good rpm rate to shoot for when im just cruising. The tach "shift-up" light on the guages lights up at about 2750 rpm, but it seems like i should be taking it farther than 2750 before shifting. I just dont want to be hard on my engine, and i would like to get good gas mileage. Thanks

rick_tj

You could search, seriously, lots of threads like this. I think there's even 3 or 4 links to gas mileage threads in the FAQ. For a quick answer though, I shift at 3000.

Edit: Stupid me, I also redline it in first and second every few days, just to keep the carbon out.

jediknight7

if you feel like you should shift higher, than shift higher. ive always thought a light to tell you to shift up was stupid. if you need a computer to tell you when to be shifting, then you shouldn't be doing the shifting at all, and let the computer do it itself (hence the automatic transmission). mileage will be affected more by how you drive, not when you shift; you could speed shift with your foot pedal to the pedal at 2500, and get worse mileage than granny driving/shifting up to 3k.

(by the way, thanks for the engine offer ;-) )

RETed

Your shifting does not really affect the gas mileage as much as your steady-state cruising.
Try and change your shift points from gas tank to gas tank and calculate how much more gas it uses.
I'd imaging the change is not that significant.


-Ted

Syonyk

If you don't want to be hard on the engine:

Don't let it get much above 3000 RPM before it's fully warmed up. It usually will take a while after the temperature gauge comes to normal for the oil temps to hit normal, so "warmed up" I usually consider to be 5-7 minutes after the water temperature hits normal.

Then just drive it. And every now and then, drive it hard. High RPM operation is *good* for a rotary - it keeps things working and keeps the engine cleaned out.

-=Russ=-