What is the best way to use a car engine if one knows what its maximum power and torque are at various RPMs?

Answer 1

The best way to use an engine is to NOT run the rpm unnecessarily high and to NOT "lug" the engine by running it at too low an rpm for the torque that is needed. One gets used to these two principles by experience in order to apply them to vehicles equipped with manual transmissions. Regarding vehicles equipped with automatic transmissions, the operator does not need to give these principles much consideration at all, because the transmission will shift to put the rpm in the needed range. Both "lugging" and over-rev'ing of engines can be damaging or can shorten the life of engines. Noises, especially at high rpm, and noise and vibration, especially at low rpm, help one to ascertain when he is operating an engine out of the preferred power and speed ranges. It is not necessary to know the maximum power and torque to apply these two principles. Just learn this, and do it, and you can obtain a very good and long service life from an engine. At 63 years of age, I have owned about twenty automotive vehicles and a number of other engines, and I have never worn out an engine or blown up an engine. Other things have worn out, but the engines were still good.