How high to rev before shifting in each gear?
 

Feel free to hit redline after its broken in. Anyone who tells you that there's any danger to the motor when you hit fuel cut is unclear about the purpose of the rev limiter. If 7500 rpm would hurt the motor in any way, Nissan would have set the rev limiter lower.

I broke my car in just like the manual called for. There's a lot of opinions out there on how to do it, and its damn near impossible to prove one is better than another.

^that's fine to do with the Z too, when you DD it, you don't need to redline it on every gear, why'd you need to look at the number when you can feel the car...?? :icon17:

Break in period is a myth. The cars seen redline plenty before it even left Japan.

I agree with this for the most part, remember why an engine needed to break it, to wear some parts in and at one time get all the left over bits of metal from poor machining, manufacturing is so much better now that I have only seen one locked up motor under 5k miles presumably from not breaking it in, it was a brand new Pontiac gran prix, a 1996. That said, there are many other moving parts in the trans and diff as well, so IMO(I did not buy mine new) I would drive it 1k easy change all the fluids and red line away..JMO. On topic I agree with others there is no perfect rpm, you will learn your car and engine and shift by sound, it will become second nature, not all situations are identical, we have hills everywhere, nothing it flat, which sometimes it requires more engine power to achieve the desired acceleration. I know when my car is going to hit red line without looking at the tach, you simply learn the car. Drive it and see what feels good, thats all.

To be honest, I hardly ever see the RPM during gear shifts. You could hear the engine and feel it when it's time to shift, especially if you have an after market exhaust. Pay attention to the surroundings is more important. :tup:

Driving easy, if there are some parts left needing to break in still, will hold them back from their potential. The GTR is practically raced before it leaves the factory. It sees redline, full redline shifts, brakes are glowing orange etc. bikes are also no different when they leave Japan. The 370 will not get this treatment. You need to do full 60 to 10 mph breaks over and over 6-7 times to bed them in, you need to flex the motor and swell the piston rings to get them to seat more, and you need to drain all fluids and refill. Cars fully done in under 200 miles. Leaving the fluids in for 1k is to long. The diff at least has a piss poor magnet to catch metal. My tranny didn't.

370Z is a rough car to shift with. It takes a long time to get used to. But I believe shifting between 2.2k~2.5k is ideal for daily driving because the gear locks in a lot more smoother and it's easier to control without much rocking back and forth. Shifting past 3k causes a lot of jerking/rocking motion with gears going in significantly rougher and forceful.

Well... i just feel the touqe. If the car feels slow in a gear and speed that am in, i just shift down. If the car feels too roughf i just shift up and if am racing thats a whole other story.:tiphat:

Same here. Don't understand shifting much lower. Sometimes 3,000, but any lower gets into a "bogging" range.

? Not my experience at all.

So far everyone has this wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!


I recommend you take your Z to your local dyno and look at the chart they print out for you. where you see your power begin to drop off, that is your new shift point.

why not spend a couple bucks to find the most optimal shift point I say

My shifting points are...

1st to 2nd - 43 mph
2nd to 3rd - 74 mph
3rd to 4th - 104 mph
4th to 5th - 124 mph
5th to 6th - 159 mph

But i couldn't wrap my head around the point of having to shift in 25-30mph increments (4-->5-->6). That just seems to make 6th gear pretty worthless imho. I'm not trying to argue, just explaining my thought process.

:driving:

Pretty strong statement without backing it up with some numbers.

there fixed it for you:happydance:

if you're at the drag strip
 

"where you see the power begin to drop off"