At what RPM does the 302 redline?

 

stock form? i would not go past 4500-5000 rpm

 

I take mine to 5500 all the time. Hit 5700 once, that was the highest its ever been

 

when i'am driving it really hard i dont bring it past 4700

 

There is a break in the HP ratings, one of 185hp and one of 205hp - I believe it was somewhere in the 93/94 area...

Anyway...

The break has to do with whether or not it has roller lifters - a roller lifter'd version will run to about 5500 rpm - the non-roller to about 5000.

I don't know what year truck you have, but they're rev limited to 5500 rpm. If you saw 5700 on your tach - your tach is off.

Stock tachs are not totally accurate and is common to be off by 100-200 rpm or more. The amount of inaccuracy is proportional to RPM - as in it's not 100-200 rpm off at idle but it can be at other RPM.

They stop making power after about 4000 rpm - it trails off enough after 4500-4600 to not even bring it that high as it's not beneficial.

 

The non-roller I'd also say 5000-5200 would be max but it will rev more if you let it. You don't make power way up there so it's useless to go that high. When my Ranger was a 351 I'd shift around 5100 with the C4 until that blew. When that happenen the engine made it to 7800 and that was the end of that. Now it's a 396 .

 

Weak point is the valvetrain, 5000-5500 is the limit there, although as these guys said the practical limit is inthe mid-4000's.

I've seen built-up ones revving past 9k though (can't remember if it was actually a 302 or a 289).

 

Its a 94 302
Its possible the tach could be off but I really don't know, its just a basic autometer. Nothing fancy.
The time it hit 5700 RPM's I had it at wide open throttle and it was only there for about 1 second, then it dropped back down to about 5400 and stayed there untill I let it off

edit; Just remembered I had a chip in it when it did that. Maybe it had something to do with the redline?

 

Very possible, could of allowed a few extra RPM past normal or disabled the rev limiter allowing it to go alittle further.

The point here is that the rev limit is not determined by the strength of the engine. It's determined by the amount of airflow able to pass through the engine. At 5500 rpm these engines are way past done flowing air and are tapped. It's out of air to flow and raise RPM. A mustang has the same bottom end but spins to 6200 because it has more airflow at those RPMs.