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Yeah, I never let my cars warm up to normal operating temperature. I normally let it run/idle until the thermostat opens up (which is usually when the temperature needle starts to go up). Then drive gently and the car them warms up pretty fast when on the road.
Who ever told you that the thermostat opens when the temp. needle moves is wrong. The thermostat does not open until at least 180.
Not true...@! If you have a 180 degree thermostat, it begins opening long before 180 degrees. It will be fully opened at 180 degrees..
It doesn't start to open at 180, it ends it's opening at 180 degrees....
No it starts to open at 180. If you dont believe me get a pot of water but a new thermostat and a cooking thermometer and put a pot of water on the boil.
Not true...@! If you have a 180 degree thermostat, it begins opening long before 180 degrees. It will be fully opened at 180 degrees..
It doesn't start to open at 180, it ends it's opening at 180 degrees....
Back to my wonderful money pit RX-7. Installed a water temprature gauge in it. Put the sensor about a half an inch before the thermostat.
The temprature of the car would act like this.
I could watch the temprature increase as the car was warming up (while driving). It would increase to just a few degress above the thermostat temperature.
The second it crossed that temprature it would drop about 10F.
My only explanation was as the thermostat opened it pushed all of the colder fluid through the system rapidly. The fluid that was sitting in the radiator. And it then circulate back to my sensor.
Then the needle would be at the therostat temperature within about 15 seconds after that initial drop.
So, it seems as if the thermostat in that car opened basically at or above its temprature.
my friend has been q wrench for many years and I asked him that very question. He said tht if you have an automatic and if it shifts hard when you got from park to drive or reverse it isn't healthy on the tranny. As far as the oil is concerned if you are at such an angle that the oil lickup tube is sucking air that could be bad. but if you are picking up oil the pump should pick it up take it to the top and some of it run downwhere it is supposed to but most will run down the front or back of the motor. Un less you are running a synthetic like AMsoil which bonds to the mettal you should be ok short term. I would say try and keep away from doing it all the time. By the way I am running Amsoil Synthetic threwout that car and it is comming up on 190,000 and shows no sign of wearing out annalisys tells me that as well as it feels and drives like a new car "01 PT cruizer."
Yes, you like Amsoil. We get it now, so you can stop bumping ancient thread after ancient thread to tell us.
Listen guys, with your 40 year old cars with old 302's, and crappy old carbs, firstly, it's a miracle if they started at all in winter, secondly, you had to let them warm up for ages before driving, or they'd bog and flump !
Modern cars have so much technology built into them, the fuel/air mixture is all carefully controlled by the ECU, which can sense the operating temperature of the engine.
It knows how cold the air is, how cold the block is, how well it's been burning so far, how cold the coolant is, and adjusts everything to suit.
Yes, granted, the oil does take longer to warm up and do it's job, so you shouldn't cane it for a while.
However, oil technology has ALSO come on in leaps and bounds in terms of protection from cold, and you might not do the same damage today as you'd have done with an old car.
The advice to idle for as long as it takes to scrape the windows is probably correct, any longer than that is unnecessary.
say you go to look at a car, and it only has 5,000 miles, but you find out that the owner had it idling for hours on end, would you still buy it ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mugatu
I'll join the side that thinks warming up a modern car is unnecessary. A car warms up to operating temp MUCH faster if you just drive it gently for the first few minutes. I don't think letting an ice cold engine sit there and idle for 20 minutes is any better for it, and it's a complete waste of energy.
Start the car, let the car idle for 30 seconds to a minute to get the oil flowing, then just drive it and the engine will be up to operating temp in just 5 minutes. Now of course, don't do any crazy jackrabbit starts or high revs until it is warmed up, but a few minutes of gentle driving to get the car up to temp isn't a bad thing. My car is 12 years old and still going strong, so I must be doing something right.
Most people I know nowadays are idling their cars in the morning in cold weather so that the INTERIOR warms up...nothing to do with the engine at all, like we'd have to do to even get the old beasts moving.
As I have stated SO many times on SO many forums, READ THE OWNER'S MANUAL and follow the intructions contained therein!
I have read my manual, so no matter what the weather, I go out to my (unheated) garage, open the door, start the Subaru, and drive off. By the time I get to the highway (about a mile and a half), it is warmed up enough to accelerate onto the road.
Idling is a waste of fuel. Fuel is expensive. I am not rich. Ergo, no unnecessary idling for my vehicles.
YOU, however, are free to do as you wish.
Good luck.
Oh, yeah, to answer the original question, no, probably not, as long as the oil pressure light does not come on.
Listen guys, with your 40 year old cars with old 302's, and crappy old carbs, firstly, it's a miracle if they started at all in winter, secondly, you had to let them warm up for ages before driving, or they'd bog and flump !
Not a miracle at all. All you need is a working choke.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobman
Modern cars have so much technology built into them, the fuel/air mixture is all carefully controlled by the ECU, which can sense the operating temperature of the engine.
It knows how cold the air is, how cold the block is, how well it's been burning so far, how cold the coolant is, and adjusts everything to suit.
Yeah, so ultimately its just dumping lots of fuel in so it runs smooth. And because it runs smooth it gives everyone the impression that they are ready to drive off... not quite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobman
Yes, granted, the oil does take longer to warm up and do it's job, so you shouldn't cane it for a while.
However, oil technology has ALSO come on in leaps and bounds in terms of protection from cold, and you might not do the same damage today as you'd have done with an old car.
New or old it really doesn't matter. If you begin loading the engine immediately after its started on a cold day, YOUR DOING DAMAGE. Rings need to expand, clearances in rod and crank journals need to tighten up, oil needs to get into a steady state of flow.... same things apply for the transmission. All the clearances are sloppy when the engine is cold, lots of fuel and high tech oil doesn't change that.
Unless your using a block heater then the engine needs a few minutes of idling and then a few miles of lightly loading the engine. Remember, if you hop in, start a cold engine and drive off your still GUZZLING fuel as it will be running in a very rich mode until it warms up. The Law of Conservation of Energy tells us that no matter what, its going to take the same amount of fuel to bring the engine up to a specific temperature.
Actually to let the engine warm from cold to operating temp is the most ideal, but time consuming. Engine clearances are all designed around operating temperature, you don't want full load on a cold engine. I wish I gave myself the time in the morning to let my engines warm up for at LEAST 10 minutes before driving.
20 minute is getting kinda long reminds me of a carb becuase they would run like crap till warm and would stall if you tried to just hop in and go after being parked over night man the old carbs had character the smell of it running rich
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