Warming it up...

Who warms their engine up before driving?

  • Total voters
    34
C.Berry

C.Berry

Bad News
Joined
Aug 10, 2008
Location
Blacksburg, Va
I'm a firm believer warming your engine up before driving it in morning helps to maintain a longer engine life from my personal experiences, I've had 4 vehicles over 350k and one hard ass 4.0 that made it to 460k... what y'all think about this? Operating temp important to you?
 
I’ve always tried to let the engine run a minute or two in my cars before I start moving, the diesel truck I’ll turn on the high idle for a few mins before I start rolling if it’s cold.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Modern cars with fuel injection and "clean" burning engines, it's a non-issue. With old choke operated vehicles, you may be dumping excess fuel, washing the cylinder walls, and thinning out the oil.

I use the remote start and don't like to get into a truck with a frosted/fogged up window.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 
It's impossible to get my LB7 up to operating temp without driving it and getting the engine under a load. It's over cooled from the factory.

Most anything in the engine has expanded to operating size and tolerance after running for a minute or so. I try not to let my stuff idle and get zero miles per gallon any more than I have to.
 
When it gets cold, I usually start my van up about 10 minutes before I leave. In the summer time, I do not start it up before leaving.
 
My Cummins will not move the temperature gauge unless it is being driven under load. But, when it is cold, I do set the park brake and let it idle in neutral for a minute to thin out the tranny fluid, otherwise the transmission hesitates until it warms up.
 
cbjeeper said:
My vehicles all park out side so most cold days they are frosted over and I hate scraping ice, so I let them run long enough to defrost the windshield.
Click to expand...
I throw a sheet over my windows when frost then pull it off in morn no frosted window!!
 
Croatan_Kid said:
It's impossible to get my LB7 up to operating temp without driving it and getting the engine under a load. It's over cooled from the factory.

Most anything in the engine has expanded to operating size and tolerance after running for a minute or so. I try not to let my stuff idle and get zero miles per gallon any more than I have to.
Click to expand...
The cat in our 93 topkick is same way I can let it idle for 3 hours cold and it'll be low until drivin...
 
Croatan_Kid said:
It's impossible to get my LB7 up to operating temp without driving it and getting the engine under a load. It's over cooled from the factory.

Most anything in the engine has expanded to operating size and tolerance after running for a minute or so. I try not to let my stuff idle and get zero miles per gallon any more than I have to.
Click to expand...
My 03 6.0psd was this way as well.

I used the block heater on the 6.0 because the huei injection didnt like sub 30 degree weather. My first vehicle was an 83 ranger 2.0 4 cylinder. If you didnt let it warm up on fast idle it would stall a half a dozen times every time you pressed in the clutch.

Everything I have now gets cranked and driven easily til the heat starts blowing warm. My 67 fairlanes carb is adjusted right so it fires right up even with a healthy cam and drives off fine, my 78 f150 crawler has tbi. My daily is a 2016 f250, if its cold enough it will say "wait to drive - warming engine" and count down from 30 seconds on the dash. I only saw that once last winter when it was in the low teens or single digits one morning. It doesn't even have a block heater at all.

My feelings are if you go easy for a few miles everything warms up together. Idling isnt really doing shit to warm a transmission or rear axle. The only time I let mine warm up is if there's ice too thick to scrape easily on the windows.

Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
 
I'd guess most stuff, much like my HD, probably doesn't lock the torque converter until the trans fluid reaches a certain temperature.

If I didn't have heated seats, winters would be miserable some times! Cold leather sucks!
 
Get in, crank, go. If its forecast to be below freezing I plug in the Cummins just so there is a chance I will have heat before I get to town, but even then it usually takes about 10 to 12 miles to get the temp needle to move.

Duane
 
I'll let my work truck run for a few to get some heat and windshield defrosting.

My personal 7.3 gets plugged in if I'm planning on using the grummpy thing for much if it's cold, otherwise its a coin toss if you are leaving anytime soon. As little as I run it, I don't care if it idles for 30 minutes while I get my junk together. Either way it needs to move to really get to operating temp.
 
My car stays in the garage so no ice, and usually a little warmer than if outside. I let it run a few minutes for some heat or AC in the summer when it’s hot. If in a hurry, I just let in run about 30 seconds to get some oil flowing.
Like mentioned above modern cars don’t really need it like older pre 80’s vehicles.
 
drkelly said:
In the summer time, I do not start it up before leaving.
Click to expand...
That's a helluva trick!
So do you start it after you get where you're going? I mean, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Why start it at all then?
 
In the great republic of Mary-Land, it is illegal to idle a car to just to "warm it up". Every winter hey have radio ads about this.

I really don't see the point in any vehicle from the last 2 decades. The story may be different in extreme weather but we don't have that anywhere in the southeast.

I DO occasionally turn it on to warm up, but that is solely for the sake of my own comfort when I get in.
Which leads to another common question -

What tricks do you do to get the inside warm faster?
 
My 94 burb had a block heater on it and I loved it plugged it in all winter, heat in 5mins after driving...
 
Jeep, see oil pressure, go
99 Burban, see oil pressure, go
87 F 150, see oil pressure, go
99 E 450 start go(no OP gauge)
83 Suburban, needs high idle or a while before it wants to move.
 
justjeepin86 said:
I usually sit about 30 seconds and then go. I don't get on the throttle much until the temp needle starts to move.
Click to expand...

That is part of my problem. Less than one mile from my house I am on a 2 lane state highway going 60mph.
 
i generally just let it get down to normal idle speed before going. warm weather that's a minute or less, cold weather it's maybe 2 minutes. pretty decent hill climb out of work so i don't like to crank and go.
 
Crank and go unless it's cold out and then I want to be warm. Don't care about letting it run to warm up just to warm the motor. I'll start it early in the summer if it's hot to get there a/c going.. now the wife's zj.. if it's cold, let that thing run in neutral so it'll engage reverse! Don't really want to pull the trans and rebuild it, so it's that or back in to where we park so can just pull out in the morning.
My last xj motor had 400k+ when it died and it didn't get warmed up and it didn't get oil changed like it should've either. #3 piston cracked is what killed it. Hadn't figured out why it cracked though
 
Turn key, wait for glowplug light to go off, turn key further to crank, push foot to floor, enjoy turbo noise and rollage of coal as American flags shoot out the stacks!
 
Back
Top