2500 Engine Red Line

2500 Engine Red Line

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Discussion

Mr Tiger

Original Poster:

406 posts

135 months

Monday 26th June 2017
quotequote all
Hi,

Does anyone know what the red line is supposed to be for a standard 2500 engine? I had previously thought it was 5,500 rpm but recently saw an Autocar road test of a 2500S, where they state it is 5,800 rpm. The 1968 Autocar road test of the TR5 suggests the red line is 5,500 but they took it to 6,000 for their performance tests.

Perhaps I'm being being cautious (and pedantic) but with the long stroke 2500 engine, could 6,000 rpm do some harm?

Chris

garagewidow

1,502 posts

177 months

Monday 26th June 2017
quotequote all
used to have my rev limiter hard cut at 7k,but like you I thought better for it being a long stroke engine it may not like it in the long run so pulled it back to 6250rpm.i don't really hit it that much anyway especially on the road and it is a bit futile to carry on revving passed the engines peak power output when ideally you should be changing up a gear(if you have another oneeek)could get a dyno run to see where peak power is occurring as even with a known cam it may not be accurate.

ETA my engine isn't standard so the 7k limit wasn't too sky high to start with.

Edited by garagewidow on Monday 26th June 17:05

tapkaJohnD

1,992 posts

211 months

Tuesday 27th June 2017
quotequote all
A limiting factor for engine speed is the mean piston speed. It should be the acceleration of the piston as it move up and down the bore, but the mean speed is much easier to calculate, and 20meter per second is he usual limit for a production engine.

Triumph six-cylinder 2L engine stroke = 2.992”(76mm)
At 6000rpm, the piston travels from top to bottom of the bore in half a revolution:
Duration of stroke = 60/6000 x 2seconds = 0.005 seconds

For the 2L engine, mean speed of piston = stroke/duration (in seconds)
= 76/0.005
=15200mm/s
= 15.2 meters/s

Extend the revs and the numbers look like this:
2L, 76mm stroke
RPM Mean speed in meters/sec
6000 15.2
7000 17.7
7500 19.0

2.5L, 95mm stroke
6000 19.0
6500 20.84

So a 2.5L breaches the 20m/s rule at 'only' 6.5K, while the 2L can go up to 7.5 and stay below.

An estimate of the acceleration shows why this is important. A standard 2.5L piston weighs 346grams on the bench, but when accelerated by rapid revs as above would 'weigh' nearly 900 KILOgrams!

No doubt garagewidow has lightened his pistons, strengthened the conrods and even gone for a steel crank, all mos that can allow the 2.5L to rev safely. It'll never get near F1 levels though, such as the 2014 Renault F1 engine, that with a stroke of only 53mm but revving to 15K had an MPS of 25.6!

Stick to a limit of 6000rpm in your 2.5L!
John




Edited by tapkaJohnD on Tuesday 27th June 12:04


Edited by tapkaJohnD on Tuesday 27th June 12:05


Edited by tapkaJohnD on Tuesday 27th June 12:10

garagewidow

1,502 posts

177 months

Tuesday 27th June 2017
quotequote all
you may be right but the main problem with the 2.5 is that it uses the same rods as the 2.0 so you have a bad rod to stroke ratio which increases the thrust loads on the piston against the cylinder wall.
if only they had increased the block height by some 20mm in conjunction with longer rods it may have revved almost the same as the 2.0,but we know it wasn't practical and too expensive for triumph to do this.

Mr Tiger

Original Poster:

406 posts

135 months

Tuesday 27th June 2017
quotequote all
Wow.. incredibly detailed, informative and interesting answers!

Thank you both.

Chris

RCK974X

2,521 posts

156 months

Thursday 29th June 2017
quotequote all
I owned a few 2500 saloons and I can tell you that the red line on the tachos was 5500 rpm, if that helps.

Frankly, the ordinary carby engine is running out of puff by then anyway.

If you've got hot cams, big valves and decent PI or big carbs then it's a different story.


Edited by RCK974X on Thursday 29th June 06:32

Mr Tiger

Original Poster:

406 posts

135 months

Friday 30th June 2017
quotequote all
RCK974X said:
I owned a few 2500 saloons and I can tell you that the red line on the tachos was 5500 rpm, if that helps.

Frankly, the ordinary carby engine is running out of puff by then anyway.

If you've got hot cams, big valves and decent PI or big carbs then it's a different story.


Edited by RCK974X on Thursday 29th June 06:32
Thanks again RCK

Chris

Mr Tiger

Original Poster:

406 posts

135 months

Sunday 2nd September 2018
quotequote all
Just spotted a 2500S rev counter on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-Mk2-2-5S-rev-co...

It looks like the red line is about 5750.

Chris

jellison

12,803 posts

284 months

Saturday 6th October 2018
quotequote all
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bizy2V5EMY

I say six, maybe 6 1/4 if blue printed and a cam. You need a lot done to go beyond that 😉

Mr Tiger

Original Poster:

406 posts

135 months

Tuesday 9th October 2018
quotequote all
Thanks for the info and video. Is the yellow car your TR6?

Chris

jellison

12,803 posts

284 months

Friday 19th October 2018
quotequote all
Mr Tiger said:
Thanks for the info and video. Is the yellow car your TR6?

Chris
Hi Chris. Yes yellow 6 on of them, should be back out next year after an engine refresh. Noise it makes is something else.

Yertis

18,654 posts

273 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2018
quotequote all
jellison said:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bizy2V5EMY

I say six, maybe 6 1/4 if blue printed and a cam. You need a lot done to go beyond that ??
I guess if you really want want revs the 2000 crank is the way to go, I think Kastner ran these up to about 8000rpm. (That can't be right though can it?)

I sometimes wonder if a well sorted 2000 wouldn't be better in a TR than the 2500.