Allowing car to warm up at start-up

Ive heard both sides from various people claiming either that allowing your car to warm up to standard operating temperature is either better for the life of your engine or has no effect at all. Any opinions?

I try and let them warm up a little, just a habit I have. Especially my old 455 I usually let it run for at least a couple of minutes. I have no idea about benefits but would guess that as long as you dont gouge on the throttle until the oil/fluid is up to operating temp. you would be fine.

Bert

Todays engines are designed to drive right away. A 1 minute 'warmup' time has been recommended as a maximum. Any longer than that and you are wasting gas. Unless you are de-icing windows (use a scraper!!) and waiting for the heat to come on, there's no reason to let it warm up. Fuel mixtures are adjusted appropriately based on operating temperature.

Personally, I stay away from heavy throttle until the engine temperature is all the way up, but they are capable.

Older engines were also meant to have short warm-up times. With my 455s I like to wait until the choke/high-idle kicks down, but it's unnecessary if the carb is tuned properly.

Imo, there is no problem with starting up and rolling right away - just try not to rev the car hard until up to normal coolant temp. Our engines are suited for this because the low end torque allows low-RPM operation. Warming up on the roll also lets all parts of the car warm up evenly (transmission, even tires and brakes need to warm up).

Letting the car sit idle, even for a minute, does one thing I can't stand. It wastes fuel. It wastes more fuel than you would think. At 70 mph we cruise at about ~2000 RPM. In one minute's time, I can cover 1.17 mile at that speed. I typically see about 28 MPG at that speed, so in one minute I would use 5.35 fl oz of gas to cover the 1.17 mile. If we say that sitting cold idle at 1000 RPM uses about half the gas of 2000 RPM (2.68 fl oz) over the same period, it can be stretched that an idle engine has potential to do roughly the same work required to roll .585 miles, or 3089 ft. If you let the car warm up for 5-10 minutes, that's between 3 and 6 miles that you could have covered for the fuel used.

This is theoretical, and not counting some factors such as engine load, but 3-6 miles is quite a distance to waste just because the car isn't moving.

rivman96 wrote:

Ive heard both sides from various people claiming either that allowing your car to warm up to standard operating temperature is either better for the life of your engine or has no effect at all. Any opinions?

Opinion: WIth our cars, don't bother.

Albertj

albertj wrote:

Opinion: WIth our cars, don't bother.

Albertj

As what the others have said.
I give it a few seconds, if time permits, and just don't get on it hard until the temp gauge moves at least some.

Making the engine work will warm it up faster than no load idling. Not getting on the engine until it has warmed up is just common sense.

I only let mine warm up a minute in the winter, not at all otherwise. But like Larry said, it's common sense to go easy on the pedal until it IS warmed up.

AA, ur answer is fuckin sweeet.

I've always wondered this question too. I hadn't realized it was actually ok for the engine to just start and drive off. I don't get on the throttle much at all until it's at full operating temperature either.

ya I leanred last year that in my eyes if I drove it under20 for about 2-3 minutes it was already warmer then if I let it sit for 5. I didn't know the stats like aaron but I understood it saved gas.

I'd say that the general consensus, along with my own opinion, is a maximum one-minute warm-up, and don't rev it over, say, 3 grand or 3500 until the temp is halfway up to normal.