[Tom Wells]

commercialcobb,

I withdraw any prior comments because after re-reading your original post, it sounds to me as if you are creating a situation where in first gear, you're bouncing the engine off the MSD rev limiter. This is completely normal.

When you take off in second you don't over-rev as easily so it doesn't happen. I've done this quite a few times in, um, traction-limited situations.

So relax, there likely isn't anything wrong at all! Your impression that the engine cuts out at 4000 rpm is erroneous. The tach, due to the needle's inertia (and your physical ability to perceive it) hasn't caught up with the engine, but its feed to the MSD has.

To prove this, you could try slicks, or even a gentle takeoff followed by rolling into the throttle without losing traction; I'd expect the tach to go to 6000 as in any of the other gears.

Let us know,

Tom