The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 rpm shift point?

My son likes to take his 235 up to 4,000 rpm before shifting. It sounds too high to me. I shift at 3,000 to 3,500 rpm. He has the 4-speed with a granny low. We rarely use 1st gear.

What do the rest of you with this engine do?

Wow! Scary! I shift my 235 and 261 at 2100. Have occasionally taken it out to 2500. That's what low end torque is for.

Spinning it to 4 grand on a regular basis will ruin a main bearing. Trust me!!!

JYF, sounds like you're shifting about the time the pistons start to swap cylinders. If that's a stock engine, you're going way past "redline" with it. A 235 can be made to take the higher RPMs but it will cost. If you have the orignal 4 speed you have a "work" horse- NOT a "race" horse.-LOL these engines can do 4 grand but sure won't last long at that rate.- Just a word to the "wise".

Uhhhh,,,,, I know where there may be a few rebuilder engines when that one scatters

My 235 shift range starts at about 1,500 rpm. About the only time I shift at over 3,000 is getting on a busy freeway. If you allow him to continue to stretch the rods by exceeding 3,000 rpm, be ready to pay for an engine rebuild along with another block. Tough to weld up holes from a thrown rod.

Thanks my friends!

I let him know.

I wouldn't think there is much acceleration between 3K and 4K rpm. I bet he would actually pull away faster if he shifted at 2500rpm and let the engine torque and gearing do the work.

Thats one healthy 235 to revv to 4 grand with stock components. My 235 would spin to 4300 with the 4 bbl, duals, cam, etc. Just had that minor problem with the thrust bearing...

And it can take a looooooonnnggg time to fix :rolleyes:

I agree with Tony M. I can't imagine there would be any real big kick above 3000 rpm. The poor engine at that speed is already looking for a plot at the local cemetary.

I have a 4 speeder with granny and 4.11's. My typical shift rpm between 2nd -->3rd and 3rd --> 4th is 2,200. My truck would hate me if I went beyond that. 2,200 happens to also be the rpm at my fastest highway speed 57+mph,,,,,, or so.

Back in the 60's when I was high school guys had 55 or whatever Chevy cars with 235 sticks.Now to us back then, a 6 cylinder was not considered a "proper engine" so we beat the snot out them 235's.We used to say a 235 doesn't have enough power to rev high enough to throw a rod. A friend of mine regularly tried to hit 60 mph in second gear, sometimes holding the pedal floored for a few miles to hit 60.I bought a beat up 54 Belair when I was 17, it wouldn't do 60 in second ,but tried many times.An older friend told me the engine should have 45 psi on the oil guage not the 10 psi my engine had. Still it wasn't the engine that croaked, I tore first gear out of the tranny trying to impress a young lady.I not saying I would abuse an enginr like that now, but they seemed to survive back then.

I'm an engine abuser. I rev my Miata engine to 7100 RPM occasionally and I hit the rev limiter in my BMW once in a while too. They like it, though. They both have 150k miles on them with no problems. I try to be nice to the stovebolt, but I had the old 216 up to 70 mph (3500 rpm) before I tore it out because it was already hosed. It made a lot more noise after that. It already had oil pressure problems.