No need to worry.   The Vanagon ECU will cut off the injectors when it over-revs (BTDT, thought I'd killed it).  I have to climb hills at 45 mph @ 4500 in second all the time with my auto, that's just life here in the hilly NW.  Also, as long as your transmission fluid is still nice and red, you didn’t burn it up. 

Maybe our tachs are off, since you were doing nearly 20 mph faster at the same rpm!  Didn't you have to go up this hill in second as well?  Oh wait, it's the speedo!  I use my GPS for speed, my speedo reads over 10% high, and so does yours.  It must be a VW false advertising trick since the odo is right on.  My '84 did the same thing.

Forget about it.

Stuart 
'85 Westy 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Ed Lloyd
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 11:11 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Toasted my engine or transmission?

I am worried that I might have caused some damage by doing another “Dumb thing to do with a Vanagon.”

Just back from 700 mile trip to Johnstown, Pa, where I came down a steep, narrow, winding road, and used 2nd gear (automatic trans) to stay slow and avoid wearing down the brakes.
At the bottom, a detour, confusing roads, traffic lights, never been there before, and I forgot to upshift to “Drive.”

I find the expresssway out of town, plug along for about 5 miles, traffic moving 65+, I am doing about 63, with road noise, wind noise, truck noise, but eventually I realize the engine is 
sounding very loud.  Van is driving well, so I figure the exhaust is starting to need attention when I get home.  

A glance down at the instrument panel to check for the “red blinking light”, which I do frequently, and I am alarmed to see 4500 on the Tach!  Out of the green, almost into the red zone.

A quick shift back into “Drive” and all becomes normal again, but at what future cost?  

Will this dumb mistake cause any lasting harm to a 2.1L waterboxer?

Ed in Rockville, Md