Originally Posted by
MTEng
Some interesting reading on max piston speed
.... I recall from years ago that you want to keep max piston speed under 4500 fps for best reliability. There's something magical about that number .... so best not to rev the living daylights out of the engine if you want it to last forever. You want to increase BMEP to increase power.... bore it, make it breathe better, and/or force-feed it.
Even at 9000 rpm, the mean piston speed of a B18C1 is around 2100 fps. But you are right, revving the motor out past stock redline puts a lot more stress on the internals and reliability will decline exponentially. The tensile forces of high revs are a lot more damaging than the compressive forces of boost...up to a certain point.