Threads like this are comical. We have guys who probably have never lifted their hoods commenting in here. Some of the posts really show that.
There is one big difference that Mt Tam I Am sort of mentioned. There is a huge difference between over revving under load and over revving under no load. The loadings on the engine are completely different. I would not be worried about over revving for a quick duration, if the engine didn't drop a valve or break the oil pump your fine.
Longer than a just a quick blip of the rpms and I would be worried about the engine moving towards dangerous harmonics than anything else. Its those harmonics that would absolutely kill an engine (again the harmonics under load are going to be different than a quick overrev). I would consider the biggest limitation (aside from harmonics) to setting a redline for a particular engine is in the heads, more specifically the valves.
Think of it this way, unless an engine is blueprinted and truely balanced (and we all know that nothing is perfect) its like taking your very very slightly out of balance tire and accelerating with it. You can easily feel when the tire starts to vibrate the whole car, then as you go faster you may notice it go away, but there becomes a point when its going to get much worse as you start to move towards its natural frequency. The same thing will happen (and does happen) in your engine.
Anyways, sorry for the bit of a rant. I promise you your engine will be perfectly fine. If you were going to do damage you would have known right then and there when you dropped a valve.
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