Interesting article (Cold starting)

if you live around the CLT area, it doesn't matter, some damn phone lookie-lu will run into you anyway. so you can drive that new car like its stolen since the body shops are so full the adjusters just total them anyway. I see during my 30 miles commute up and down 77 from huntersville to statesville about 15 cars wrecked a day. sometimes as many as 50. seriously. back to back bumper car record was 12 about a month ago. they were all 'totaled' by the look of it.
 
Gasoline is an outstanding solvent and it can actually wash oil off the walls if you run it in those cold idle conditions for an extended period of time."
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What "extended period of time" does he think it's going to stay in a "cold idle condition" if it's RUNNING? It's not going to be in rich mode for long at all.

I don't see this as being any sort of a problem.
 
Pacfanweb said:
What "extended period of time" does he think it's going to stay in a "cold idle condition" if it's RUNNING? It's not going to be in rich mode for long at all.

I don't see this as being any sort of a problem.
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Depends on the ambient temps. Around here, not long. In the Colorado winters, it takes a long time to reach operating temp at idle during -15degF weather. It's much quicker at low load.
I used to change the oil a lot in my turbo cars in Colorado, because they were already tuned conservatively rich from the factory, and the cold temps make that worse, then combine that with short trips... Fuel dilution was a bit of a problem. Getting the engine to start at -15degF was also a bit of a problem.

The low load instead of idling recommendation has been around for years, and is probably in the owners manual of many cars made in the last 15 or more years.
 
Idling is great if you have remote start. Gives the defroster time to work, and the heated seats and steering wheel get to warm up.
 
I totally agree with this!!! Well since my new jackass neighbor warms his loud junk up for 30 mins each and every morning with the tailpipe pointed at my bedroom!! It's gon taters in the exhaust pipe eventually with all that idling.
 
Infamous1 said:
I totally agree with this!!! Well since my new jackass neighbor warms his loud junk up for 30 mins each and every morning with the tailpipe pointed at my bedroom!! It's gon taters in the exhaust pipe eventually with all that idling.
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My neighbor with some type of street bike likes to rev it to high RPM to warm it up. Hope it blows up, never met the guy (they're the sketchy house with the drug arrests) but he uses the neighborhood 25 MPH zone to practice wheelies in front of the house.
 
What am I missing here.
In a reasonably new, normal-working engine, at what point are oil and gas lubing the same space? This logic seems like it really only works if you have old worn rings? Technically maybe it does make some kind of difference but overt he life of an engine I'd bet it is very small.
What this ignores is the real reason people warm up their engine - it's for the comfort of the driver, not for the longevity of the car. I don't know a single person who intentionally warms up their car before driving for the sake of engine longevity.
It sucks to get into a cold car. Or its sucks to drive a car (esp diesel) with a cold engine that is running really inefficiently. As long as you have to wait for the engine to warm up the coolant to warm up the heater core, you're stuck having to idle it for awhile waiting for that to happen.

BTW in Maryland it's actually illegal to let cars sit idling just to warm up. Horseshit IMO. Intended to cut down on CO emissions I guess. I don't know anybody who actually pays attention to it... people are a lot more likely to not leave their car idling due to fear of theft...
 
Infamous1 said:
I totally agree with this!!! Well since my new jackass neighbor warms his loud junk up for 30 mins each and every morning with the tailpipe pointed at my bedroom!! It's gon taters in the exhaust pipe eventually with all that idling.
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Buy a deuce and a half and face the exhaust to his window. Problem solved, (and you get a deuce).
 
That article is false information. I always warm my car up on cold mornings.
 
I think this article is crap.

If your car is running rich enough on cold starts to dilute the oil,

The plugs would be fouled, and chambers filled with carbon. The 02 sensors would also then be fouled and a CEL would probably be active.

Go cold start and don't wait for engine to warm, I bet you lose compression and get that new metal flake oil mod. That's a guaranteed way to destroy the rings.
 
My 99 suburban with 322 thousand on the original engine likes to sit and idle when it's cold or hot outside. The untouched transmission likes it too. A properly adjusted carburetor that functions properly with heat riser valve and warm air pipe to air cleaner will start up and drive off immediately with no hesitation. I think all the different metal parts made out different metals can last longer if they are at least warm and well lubricated before rushing off.
 
We should still change our oil at 3000 miles too, shouldn't we? :rolleyes:
 
Coming from one of the coldest places on earth ( Northern MN) This is bullshit.

If you remembered to plug your car in at night you might be able to crank it. And after that your damn right your gonna warm it up if you want to see out the windows.
 
In all my years of driving I have found that those two minutes of cold in the vehicle don't bother me that much while driving it to warm it up. Within two miles the thing is warm enough to blow warm air out of the vents. Aftermarket seat heaters are pretty cheap if you install them yourself. I even put them in my Nissan for winter wheeling comfort!

I think the author of that article is missing the fact that this "cylinder washing" phenomenon happens continuously. Cylinder walls get sprayed with oil, piston rings scrape it off, thin film left, gas gets sprayed and BOOM an explosion happens that roasts all the oil film that was on there. Cycle repeats. It's not that he is not telling the truth (somewhat) but the way it is presented is false. And where does this 40°F thing come from for closed-loop? If that was true any engine that was cold-soaked above 40°F would always run closed loop. That's simply not true, the engine computer goes into closed-loop mode with a variety of factors, none of which are as cold as that temperature he suggests.
 
OnlyOneDR said:
I think the author of that article is missing the fact that this "cylinder washing" phenomenon happens continuously.
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Id like to hear his thoughts on rollin coal.
 
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