Gas powered engine horsepower equivalent to electrical motor horsepower?

[Matt Attallah]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

as long as you keep the block from overheating and have decent lubrication( i guess thats part of the overheating prevention) and dont run out of gas, quite a long time.... for example, car engine's peak output rpm is around 4000~6000 rpm. i think... not diesel, gasoline... and not rotary engines either, which tend to have lower rpm peak power. car engine's redlines are a bit higher than the peak, so well,,, im confusing myself again.... help?

Heh - now is when I inject my 2 cents worth...

A car engine's peak HP/Torque can happen low or high (depends on the application) For rock crawling and stuff that you need the most of the power lower in the band - you just change the timing/cam. I have seen engines with the most torque at about 2,000 RPMs. Now for horse power - yes you will typically need to go higher. I think that the lowest i have seen HP is at about 3,100 RPM (agian - these are for any decent hp/torque 200+ in each catagory) But for Racing applications - you wish to have a split. Torque in the low end and HP in the higher end.

For this application I'd personally like to see a diesel engine. The RPMs are kept much lower, and the torque is needed here (and lots of it.) Gas is better for speed - but diesel is best for getting off the line/heavy loads.

And for the Peak HP/Torque curve and the redline - rember you have gears in your vehicle. When you shift at your redline - you idealy will be right in the middle of your power band (from the taller gearset) - so you get the most pulling power when you shift.