I took my car for an emissions test this morning and on my way there I went on the highway and floored it a couple times to try and get the engine as hot as possible. I noticed that the needle on the RPM gauge was into the red zone, even slightly passed it before changing gears. I don't remember the needle ever going so far, but I also can't remember the last time I floored it like that.
The car is pretty much stock including the automatic transmission.
Yesterday I changed the oxygen sensor, ignition coil, catalytic converter, spark plugs, cap and rotor. I cleaned the pcv and iac valves and I set the base idle(It has been idling too fast since I swapped my engine years ago). Until yesterday I never had anything to accurately measure the RPM and the car seemed to be running fine so I never really worried about it. I also checked the tps sensor and it is giving off the correct voltage.
The car passed the emissions test with flying colors which it's never done in the 10+ years I've owned the car which leads me to believe the engine is running correctly.
Is there a sensor or specific part that controls when the gears change or is that all transmission and/or computer controlled?
Am I correct to assume the RPM shouldn't be getting that high before changing gears?
Maybe it's just me but it seems like the car was more responsive to the gas pedal prior to changing all of those parts.
I was going to change the spark plug wires as well but they didn't have any in stock when I was at the store. Would I benefit from performance wires or should I stick with OEM?
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

Chances are your tach is reading high.

The red line is just a spot of paint anyway, doesn't have much to do with the limits of the engine.

 

^^^This^^^

The tachs in these cars fail that way. Don't believe em. Verify against actual test equipment before freeeeking out.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...meter-fix.html