Warming up vehicles in winter

[Bigborealaska]

Well damn, cant use remote start anymore here in Idaho. HAHA

 

[ODB]

From the article: Gas-powered cars need oil to keep their engines lubricated. When you start a car, an oil pump circulates the oil in less than a minute. Letting your car idle in cold temperatures can shorten the life of your engine by stripping away oil from the engine’s pistons and cylinders — two critical components that help your engine run, Stephen Ciatti, Ph.D., principal engineer for battery systems at PACCAR, told Business Insider in 2016.

I'm no pHD, but can anyone explain how idling a car in cold temps removes oil from the piston and cylinder, if, as the guy says, oil is fully circulating in less than a minute?

 

[tony]

I warm mine up until the idle drops to regular idling rpms. In the summer thats usually just a minute or two. If its under 30 or 40 degrees it takes a little longer, under 0, it takes quite a bit longer.

Same here, I just hit the auto start and little it idle down
Then I have lazy ass neighbor that let the car run for an hour to melt snow.

 

[*zap*]

Warm is good

 

[Pony Soldier]

I warm up my diesel and cool it down before parking. Hell I even warm up my horse. Seems to improve their disposition.

 

[Gutshot007]

I always thought most of of an engines wear occurs during the cold start before the oil pumps to the pistons

 

[VernAK]

For extreme cold........of course I have an engine heater and a battery heater but once the engine is started, I then shift the transmission into neutral from park to circulate fluids and continue the warm up period. If you are running stiff tires, you may have to install tubes as you roll off the flat spot, the bead can separate........happened last night at -50F.

 

[Trial153]

My remote start on my app is on a ten minute timer. That’s usually enough to get things tolerable

 

[go_deep]

I've taken several vehicles over 200k, some of those work truck have loonnngggg idle times. Never had a problem.

 

[packer58]

I warm up every internal combustion engine I own, from my wood splitter to to my 200 EFI setting on the back of my bass boat. I will say though, my 6.7 starts like gasser in cold weather unlike my old 7.3 that was very grumpy when it got cold ....

 

[displacedtexan]

I used to have a p-pump 24v Cummins (never built by Cummins, but with some custom lines and a bunch of different factory parts...)

It had about 30° of timing advance (factory was 13.5°), and was ANGRY when you started it below about 40°. I definitely let it warm up.

At least until it would idle without pedal input.

 

[KurtR]

Same here, I just hit the auto start and little it idle down
Then I have lazy ass neighbor that let the car run for an hour to melt snow.

I’m that neighbor.

 

[7mm-08]

It was -42F at my place early this morning.
I plugged the car in at about 0700.
It will slowly warm via the oil pan heater throughout the day.
I will start it at 1730 to warm up for a half hour before
I drive to town for a dinner date with friends.
This is how I have done it for many years!
Always use synthetic oils!!

I have an ESPAR heater in my 01 Cummins/Dodge.
It is one of the best things that I installed on it!!

Bob

-42F still air temperature will tell the men from the boys - damn that's COLD!

 

[black dawg]

From the article: Gas-powered cars need oil to keep their engines lubricated. When you start a car, an oil pump circulates the oil in less than a minute. Letting your car idle in cold temperatures can shorten the life of your engine by stripping away oil from the engine’s pistons and cylinders — two critical components that help your engine run, Stephen Ciatti, Ph.D., principal engineer for battery systems at PACCAR, told Business Insider in 2016.

I'm no pHD, but can anyone explain how idling a car in cold temps removes oil from the piston and cylinder, if, as the guy says, oil is fully circulating in less than a minute?

Because engines running cold can have some incomplete combustion, leaving fuel on the cylinder walls. This fuel washes away oil on the cylinder walls. This is the theory, and for sure does happen on some scale.

Personally wouldnt worry about it on any correctly running modern fuel injected engine.

 

[ODB]

Because engines running cold can have some incomplete combustion, leaving fuel on the cylinder walls. This fuel washes away oil on the cylinder walls. This is the theory, and for sure does happen on some scale.

Personally wouldnt worry about it on any correctly running modern fuel injected engine.

Ok, but the second the engine is turned over it eventually begins heating up, which would progressively mitigate the issue. It’s also unavoidable. The engine by nature cannot run cold.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

The heater doesn't work in my ram2500 because I am not paying $2000 to replace the heater core. So, I don't "Warm up my truck for comfort". I start it about 1 minute before I drive it no matter how hot or how cold out it is. Let things get lubed up before I jam on it. lol

That heater core will be the death of me. I have cussed so much about it that I will indeed answer for my sins on judgement day. What a STUPID design.

How is a beater core 2k? I got one for my wife’s Xterra, it cost like 140.00, me and my buddy spent a few hours installing it. It’s like a long aluminum pipe thing.

 

[Holeintheheadgang]

Pre heat accordingly and warm per MANUAL.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I fire them up before I jump in the shower in the morning. I drive them ~ 20 minutes later.

One school of thought Tolley the oil pressure get up so it’s circulation, another theory is to drive right away because it heats up and circulates the oils faster.

I don’t think driving an engine with a pan full of cold gelled up oil is good but I’m not a mechanic and don’t worry much about how other people warm up their vehicles.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

I have an '01 Duramax with an Edge CTS 2 monitor in it. Anyone else have an edge monitor in their truck? It's very informative about the actual engine and tranny temp. I don't drive my truck until the engine is at 80 degrees and don't turn it off until the EGT temp off the turbo is under 300. Minimum of 350 if I'm in a hurry. The tranny fluid temp definitely goes up while it's idling during warm up but not nearly as much as the engine coolant temp will.

My wife has a honda civic and I just tell her to let it warm up a minute or two before driving to work and if it's really cold, low 20s or teens, she'll warm it longer to obviously defrost the windshield.

 

[Mojave]

Idling or warming up a vehicle here in most of Europe is illegal. I think it is also illegal in Anchorage, Alaska and several places in the lower 48 and Canada.

Winter smog is an issue in a lot of places, maybe there is a belief that it contributes to it in a greater way.