What RPM is considered lugging?

Defiant

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I'm still getting accustomed to the low revving nature of the modular after coming from years of high revving 4 cyl popcorn makers, so bare with me.

When cruising in 4th or 5th gear, what rpm is safe that won't stress the engine? The talon for example was lugging below 2500 rpm and especially below 2000. The turbo didn't spool fully until 3k and the cylinder head didn't build full oil pressure until 2k. So that car had to be driven at 2500+ to keep the engine happy.

I figure the modular is perfectly fine at 2k? Having low end torque is great but it's making me lazy. Sometimes I don't bother to downshift and will instead just give it some gas at like 1200 rpm to speed up. And the car seems perfectly capable of doing that.

I would never floor it in 5th at 1200 rpm going up hill of course, just wanna make sure that driving at low rpm isn't hurting it. I like to shift before 2500 too, I have the stock gears which are super long.
 

g36 monkey

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You are fine doing what you're doing. Around 1k in 5th is fine, just don't be flooring it in 5th to accelerate like you said
 

96blak54

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Makes sense ^

Unless you shoehorn a 5.4l in there. I can attest with 2.73 rears and a 5spd......itll never lug...lol
Just pulls!

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Awesome haha. I really figured 1200 was really low for it.

So even in 5th it's fine to cruise that low? I usually try to keep it at at least 1500 just to be safe. But it does waste more gas that way.
 

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I usually try to stay above 1500, but I also have a DOHC so it likes to rev more.
 

96blak54

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You gotta think, the same engine in F150 and Econolines and they designed for low end grunt

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g36 monkey

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I have never tried to compare which way uses more fuel so that I cannot attest to
 
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True but those downshift before you could push the pedal down significantly. Meanwhile in a manual it'll stay in the gear. Seeing the automatic shift points might be worthwhile, just to see where Ford thought was ideal.
 

g36 monkey

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Ideally, you shift so you drop down to your peak torque in the next gear (for driving fast at least)

IE - if you hit peak torque at 2500 rpm, and you drop 300 rpm between shifts, you would shift at 5500.
 
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Bruh have you seen my acceleration videos? I lose like 4K rpm between shifts :D
 

g36 monkey

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I am honestly really bad about never watching anyone's videos lol.

But, if you lose 4k, and you peak at 2500 RPM, then you should shift at 6500 RPM.

Every gear you will lose different RPM, but peak torque on the motor generally stays in the same place. So you need to figure out your ideal shift points based on your driving.

The only way to really do this correctly is to throw the car on a dyno to figure out where you peak.
 
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My Saleen blower makes maximum boost at 5-6k so I try to shift as late as possible.


Just took the car for a 1.5 hr drive which included lots of spirited B roads runs and I noticed there's no ticking. It was getting quieter and quieter until now I don't hear it at all. Strange.
 

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Yeah maybe lol

just drove her 2 hrs and no ticking either.
 
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Old post, but for posterity's sake... there is no magic RPM that defines lugging. 24 years as a CDL driver, lugging is a very tangible thing, like knock or a misfire. It feels like the engine is struggling to even stay running. Basically like a misfire on multiple cylinders. What's happening is that the power at that RPM combined with the gearing is barely adequate to match the current load. So it will happen at different RPMs under different conditions. If you have to ask if you are experience lugging, you aren't experiencing lugging.
 

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