Quote:
Originally Posted by 7red7
Being that I regularly drive between the 70-80mph mark, I'm interested to know how the VTEC affects the car. Please forgive me, but the Fit is my first Honda so I admit it I'm a complete noob with this. There are explanations online as to what VTEC does to the engine, but I get lost in the physics of it all. Can anyone break it down to me what VTEC actually does, why it kicks in, and if driving at speeds that regularly see it in use causes harm to the car??? Am I just flipping out for no reason and should shut up and enjoy my new car???
DAN
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I don't know what your level of understanding of how engines work is so just keeping it really basic, VTEC is just a system that allows the car to change the timing for when/how long the valves in the engine open.
What is happening in YOUR car is when you are just driving slowly around town the engine is using only 12 valves to allow the car to run leaner and use less gas. When you speed up, say to 3-4000 RPM oil pressure pushes a small pin into place which connects the 2 intake valves in each cylinder together so that they both open wide to let more air in (thereby allowing you to burn more fuel and get more power)
Make sense?
On our cars it is designed to help efficiency while allowing the car to make more power as needed.
It does no harm whatsoever to have VTEC kick in. It is how the engine is designed to work. It's really not even unique anymore. Almost every new car on the road you see now has some form of variable valve timing. Honda was the first to really mass-market the technology though.
What we have is probably closest to VTEC-E as described here.
VTEC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia