| TrevorK |
What's your theory on winter car warmup (With fuel injected cars)?
Myself, I turn it on (scrape the windows if necessary) and once the oil circulates (30-60 seconds in almost any conditions) I take off. I drive the car normally (Under 2500RPM) from that point forward.
My belief is that the best, and quickest way to warm up the car is to drive it reasonably, and it will reach operating temperature quickly. Excessive idling will waste fuel because the car is running extremely rich.
What do you believe and why? |
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| eeebowlahhh |
i just let it run for 15 mins, dont care why, and all i know is it's warm and im happy :)
even in the summer i warm the engine up for 10 mins or more. |
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| STiPWR |
I run mine for 10min.
I dont care about the gas wastage.
I still drive the car under 3k rpm's till the engine temp is at normal level. |
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| McFly |
My gtr literally drips fuel out of the exhaust pipe on cold starts in -5.
I don't drive it until the temp is at operating levels(takes 8 min) After that i take it very easy until my oil temp get to 84~ because i don't like revving it up and pinning the oil pressure gauge:)
if i was to floor it while the engine is cold(i made this mistake once) it would just billow black and white smoke from all the fuel in dumps in from the cold enrichment sequence. |
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| bluciv93 |
| in the summer i let it run for about 30 seconds before i drive it but in the winter i let it warm until it reaches operating temp |
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| Godzilla |
with my GTR i usually try to let it warm up to operating temperatures (otherwise i drive it like a grandpa untill it gets there),
with my tercel i have a remote start so i usually just try and get the interior warmed up, but i don't worry about it as much so sometimes ill just fire it up and take off. |
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| Blaine B. |
Stock longblock cars - let oil circulate 30-60 seconds and restrict myself to the lower 50% of the rpm band until engine reaches operating temp.
Built (Forged Pistons) engine cars - Let engine warm up to operating temp before the car moves. |
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| newaccorddriver |
| i usually turn it on and then scrape off the snow. for the most part i wait until the temperature gauge starts to register and try not to bag the engine while its cold by accelerating slowly |
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| Malaria |
with my supra in the summer i let the car idle for 30 seconds to 1 min b4 i move the car.
in the winter if i have time and dont sleep in in the morning i let the car idle till the water temp gauge lifts a centimeter off the bottom, the car blows warm air then.
if im running late i idle the car for 30 seconds to 1 min and just keep the rpms down. |
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| DeathBy240 |
| I let the car warm up for probably 30 seconds. Letting it run for 15 minutes is such a waste of gas/clean air. Get some gloves. |
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| Mavrick |
| Two minutes is plenty of time for the engine to get warm enough to drive. I have heat within five minutes. |
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| Flex |
quote:
Originally posted by TrevorK
What's your theory on winter car warmup (With fuel injected cars)?
Myself, I turn it on (scrape the windows if necessary) and once the oil circulates (30-60 seconds in almost any conditions) I take off. I drive the car normally (Under 2500RPM) from that point forward.
My belief is that the best, and quickest way to warm up the car is to drive it reasonably, and it will reach operating temperature quickly. Excessive idling will waste fuel because the car is running extremely rich.
What do you believe and why?
I pretty much do the same as you and for pretty much the same reason as well |
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| Can't Stop Spin |
| I just use an interior car heater and plug the car in.... No scraping windows for me :D By the time it takes me to put the extension cords in the car it's about 30sec-min, then I drive away all nice and warm :thumbup: |
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| boarderfatty |
| If I still had the BMW i would wait until the engine was at opertating temp, but with the Durango, and it's 318 V8 I dont care as much, since its just the beater until spring. So i feel let the oil circulate then driving it in the lower rpm range till im outta my residential area is sufficient. |
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| AFI Performance |
| The faster you can get heat into the engine the better. Fire it up, throw it in gear, and keep keep the revs down until the oil gets a bit of heat in it. |
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| mwdguy |
| idle for half an hour at least in the winter time, usually 10 minutes in the summer. |
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| ehos |
| Jump in drive away from the heated garage. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
My wife starts her car and gets ready to go to work, so the time varies. Sometimes when it's really cold(like -30, -40, she'll go start her car at lunch(no power outlets for block heater) and forget to go shut it off, she it'll idle the whole afternoon... and people wonder why I don't use milage as an oil change intervol.
Me my car is Carbed, some times, depending on temp I'll drive away after a minute or two, but I have to becareful cause until she's half way warmed up left turns are bad or pulling out into any traffic is cause if I give it anymore than 1" of pedal she bogs and almost stalls(still on choke) Plus most times if I do drive away without letting it warm up, the temp gauge hasn't moved by the time I get to work, she warms up faster if I let it idle. |
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| sparkycivic |
for me, if it's stone cold and less than 0'C, i start it and let it idle for 30 secpnds to 2 mins the idea being that i can get the oil circulating and avoid shocking the cylinder heads. also, seeing the oil pressure gauge pinned makes me nervous, so i also avoid 2500+rpm till at least i've been driving for a bit and see some heat on the coolant gauge.
If it's REAL cold, I'll give the car 5-10 mins on the command-start because my tranny is real bitchy when it's that cold, and the heater can't keep up with my breath on the windows at that point till it's got some heat. |
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| Thegnome |
My fairmont needs at least 5-10mins to warm up before it will let you move.
But with my 300, In the summer I try to let it sit for a couple minutes before I move her. Otherwise I dont go over 3500rpms, and try to keep it below 70psi oil pressure until it at least gets into the regular operating heat zone.
If I drove it durring the winter, I would let it sit for a good 5 minutes at least. |
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| Invalid Zero |
| I just start and drive it. For the first 5 minutes it feels like it has 3 horsepower. Haha. |
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| dc2696 |
quote:
Originally posted by mwdguy
idle for half an hour at least in the winter time, usually 10 minutes in the summer.
same |
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| dtjohnst |
| I let it run until my 2-way remote says the temperature is over 10. Has nothing to do with keeping the car happy and everything to do with keeping me happy. Usually it's about 5-6 minutes. If I'm at work, it might be longer....I'll clean my work car, complete and file my paperwork, then start my car. After the cars running I'll feed any of the dogs that haven't been fed, clean out the kennels, top off the water, and then play with mine for a bit. If he had a good performing night (or if I left him behind that night for whatever reason), it could be as long as 30 minutes (I'll be longer but my car turns off after 30 mins). |
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| snugs |
Depends, down to -10 to -15 its usually sufficient to let it run for a minute or two until the idle drops down to its normal level before taking off....
For colder days, say below -20, I'd let it sit and idle for at least 15-20mins. That'll let the transmission warm up enough so I can shift the gears and let the interior warm up enough so the leather doesn't crackle when you sit on it. |
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| SilverZ24 |
Since I have a heated garage that is around 15 all winter, I usually just let the car run about 30-60 seconds and then pull out.
When the car isn't parked at home, I will let it run anywhere from 5-25 minutes depending on how cold it is. Like the guy above, it is all about me being comfortable, not the car. Same thing in the summer with letting the interior cool off before I get in. I use the car starter in both vehicles pretty much year round.
If it is really cold out though I do take it easy on the car until it is really warmed up. |
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| the_fornicator |
you guys seriously let your cars idle for more than 10 minutes??? that's insane. seems like a bit of overkill.
I'm usually in too much of a rush. I turn it on, scrape the windows, have a smoke and then go (I have a smoke cause my car usually needs time to defog the inside of the front window cause I wash my car a lot).
but wow, 10-25 minutes? crazy. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by the_fornicator
you guys seriously let your cars idle for more than 10 minutes??? that's insane. seems like a bit of overkill.
I'm usually in too much of a rush. I turn it on, scrape the windows, have a smoke and then go (I have a smoke cause my car usually needs time to defog the inside of the front window cause I wash my car a lot).
but wow, 10-25 minutes? crazy.
If I'm gonna be towing, I let my car warm up to operating temp with my electric rad fans it blows most the heat under the car to warm up the tranny and the diff a little.
But most time I let my car idle for 10min and it's just starting to warm up, for a v8 it sure acts like a 4cyl swift engine - takes forever to warm up. |
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| SilverZ24 |
quote:
Originally posted by the_fornicator
you guys seriously let your cars idle for more than 10 minutes??? that's insane. seems like a bit of overkill.
I'm usually in too much of a rush.
but wow, 10-25 minutes? crazy.
Being in a rush has nothing to do with it. Pushing a button just takes a second. You just need to think about it before you leave, not when you want to leave.
And like I said, it depends on the weather. Today heading out for lunch, it was probably less than 5 minutes. But when it is 20 below, I will let it run for more like 20 minutes because I don't feel like freezing my ass off. :beer: |
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| vspec |
| usually i like to let the car warm up so the interior is warm, gotta be comfy when im driving, no sense freezing when you dont have to. but if im in a rush, 30secs-1min and im gone. so is it really bad for the car to idle for like 15+min? |
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| charger_guy |
| my lancer, i let warm up for 2-5 minutes. My charger never sees winter starting. In the summer i have to let the 440 idle till she sees some heat. No choke, no go when cold. |
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| 180sxforthewin |
| We let the deisels warm up for a minute or two. My honda only needs about a minute to warm up. |
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| night_font |
| Start it up and let it run for 6 min. and then as I drive to work in traffic so its stop and go, I never get over 2500rpm and as the temp gets got 1/4 or 1/2 I get up to 3000rpm and that is sufficient enough. |
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| chris f |
Start it up, pin it and bounce off the rev limiter tell it gets warm.
Its not gas comming out of yout exhaust, if it was your car would catch fire, its water. for every liter of gas you burn you get a liter of water vapor |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by chris f
Start it up, pin it and bounce off the rev limiter tell it gets warm.
Really? You mean when a shop did that to my truck when it was -40 1 of the auto lash adjusters shouldn't have shattered and the head shouldn't have cracked?
Damn I was really hoping to hate that shop for all of enternity.. oh wait they closed shop literally 2 weeks after I got my truck back.. grrr
[/sarcasm] - but it really did happed. |
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| 240drifter |
| An engine only needs 10 secs to have the oil circulating thats from the textbooks, now Id say 10 to 30 depending some cars such as Hondas have different systems with the V tech and all but after thos few seconds as long as your easy on it your good to go...and dont need to pollute anymore lol...The heat is nice and all but the worst thing you can possibly do to an engine besides many short trips is having it idle when its cold warming up because the computer is fighting to regulate the air fuel mixture ect |
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| ozzmodan |
quote:
Originally posted by 240drifter
An engine only needs 10 secs to have the oil circulating thats from the textbooks, now Id say 10 to 30 depending some cars such as Hondas have different systems with the V tech and all but after thos few seconds as long as your easy on it your good to go...and dont need to pollute anymore lol...The heat is nice and all but the worst thing you can possibly do to an engine besides many short trips is having it idle when its cold warming up because the computer is fighting to regulate the air fuel mixture ect
I remember when I was going to NAIT, they showed us this ESSO promotional video from the 80s where they talked about how long it took to get to the uppermost part of the engine. As I remember, at -40 degrees, 5w30 synthetic took like 30 secs, non-synthetic took a little over a minute, 10w30 took around 3 minutes & 15w40 took 8 minutes at idle.
If I had an older vehicle with piston slap issues or a carb I would warm it up for a couple minutes. Other than that I just drive & go (not too aggresively until it warms up).
Kyle |
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| 2HIGH~PSI |
| haha when kayle got a rental, we would go outside start it and bounce it off the rev limiter until the temp needle started to move, then we drove off and bagged the shit out of it :thumbup: :lol: |
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