Where do you live and do you wait more than a minute before moving your car in the morning?
I've heard different theories regarding what the proper procedure is for cold starting, I wanted to see what everyone else here knew or thought.
I live in California and I wait around a minute (the time it takes me to squeegee off the moisture from the rear windows) and then get on my way, keeping it under 3k RPM until the engine is warmer.
I'm in so cal as well. After I start the car I pull up the oil temp gage on the evic. I wait till it gets up to 110 or so before I pull out. That and rowing the gears randomly a few times. Usually takes about 7-10 minutes depending on the weather.
SoCal here too... I'm of the opinion that modern engines don't need to sit to warm up. That they will get up to temp faster by just getting them on the road. Now I wouldn't punch it out of my driveway and leave a nice long double stripe down the block, just you know, "normal" driving. If you don't know how to drive normal, then maybe a few minute idle in driveway is not a bad idea!
I immediately pull out of my garage so the stinky exhaust doesn't fill up my garage. Then I drive easy until it's warmed up. The streets around my house help with that....it takes a while before I am on any highways anyway.
Give it a few seconds for the oil pressure to come up and go. Have done the same since my 1969 Pontiac and never had a major engine problem until well over 100,000 miles - except for the one where the throttle stuck wide open and it was fully warmed up at the time.
I always get in the car, start the engine, put my seat belt on, turn on the ham radio then go. I have been doing this in all of my cars and trucks since 1970, and have never had an issue. But I do keep the rpms below 3K until I see the heat gauge starting to climb. The 5.7 in the ram and challenger seam to be up to temp in less than 5 miles.
i always let the car run a bit.. granted my motor is no where near stock now but either way. it is hard on things to just get in and roll. a little temp helps things live longer
let the needles flip back and forth and go. Countless articles where driving to get up to heat is better than idling. When its below 0 I may give is a half min or so.
I start it up, let it idle in neutral for a minute or two, shift through the gears, and then keep it at 3k RPM or less until warmed up. Here's why.
Our engines are iron block with aluminum heads. This means that they expand at different rates and having them heat up more slowly and evenly tends to be better for the head gaskets. Firing it up and driving it hard when cold makes the cylinder heads go from cold to hot quickly which causes them to essentially scrub across the head gasket which can cause tearing/damage to the head gasket itself. The chances of this happening on a modern engine are pretty slim, but there's no reason to hammer the entire drivetrain when it's cold and parts are in the process of coming up to temperature, expanding, lube is getting back into all the places that it needs to be, etc.
I'm not worried about the oil not flowing sufficiently at higher RPMs, 0w40 flows fine.
Does my routine help? Dunno, but it hasn't failed me yet.
I hit auto-start from upstairs and then soldier my kids for about 5 minutes to move them into gear for school, by the time we're all settled in the cars pretty warmed up ready to go.
I just start it and go, but keep the rpm's low until it's up to temperature. Back in the old days, before synthetic oils and fuel injection, I would let the engine warm before starting out. I never heard of any difference or problems from friends cold start procedures.
Cars built within the past 20 years have electronic fuel injection. When your car’s engine is cold, the computer tells the fuel injectors to dump fuel into the engine to help it run cold. So, as long as your car starts normally, you can confidently put it in gear and go, without warming it up, even in winter.
Besides wasting gas, extended warm-up can actually cause damage to the engine by diluting the oil with excess fuel. Also, this practice is bad for your catalytic converters. In order for them to burn off un-burned engine hydrocarbons, there must be high temperatures in the exhaust. That's why idling in the cold is like a perfect storm for catalytic converter failure. You have extra gas being injected into the system, which means extra un-burned hydrocarbons are expelled into the cold exhaust, for minutes on end. If this is repeated hundreds of times, you can end up with a plugged converter.
If it's above twenty degrees, the proper procedure is to start the car. If it starts and keeps running, put it in Drive and go. Even if it is around ten or twenty degrees Fahrenheit, just a minute or two is plenty of time to let the oil circulate, before you hit the road.
Of course, during the first few minutes of your "warm-up" drive moderately until the engine is approaches operating temperature and then proceed as usual. Modern engines warm up more quickly when they're driven. And the sooner they warm up, the sooner they reach maximum efficiency and deliver the best fuel economy and performance.
I start the car, back out of the garage and onto the street, and then drive immediately.
I drive with a very light foot (like grandpa) until the oil has reached normal operating temperature. This will take at least 15 minutes during cool/cold weather.
Depends where I'm at, where I'm going, and what the weather is.
If I'm headed to work on a Monday morning, I usually start the car, then sit in it and have a good cry for about 20 seconds before backing out of the garage.
If I'm headed home after work on a Friday, I'm lucky if the drivers door is closed before I pull out of the parking lot.
If it's cold outside (like...winter cold), I usually use Remote Start (for my comfort), so it's not really an issue.
I allow the fast idle to drop down and by this point, oil flow to the valve train has a good film established.
I'll drive moderately - within two miles, the coolant has reached operating, temp, although the oil takes several more miles to reach normal temp ranges.
I see drivers in my area start up a stone cold engine, throw into gear and take off - you can hear the valvetrain and lower end clatter with noises I don't consider normal, and quite often, some blue smoke - these are fairly new cars as well of various makes.
-the consistent thing is they fire the thing up, and take off within <10 seconds.
on the 6.4 and 6.2 engines these have oil cooler / preheater systems, so the oil may come up to temp a bit faster with assistance for the coolant warming it up.
I let my car sit until the idle drops and once the needle has started to pull itself off the peg, I'll drive it but never before. During the winters in Midland TX, it took a while. I also leave the AC off until the idle has dropped.
My preference when cold is to start the car and start driving it slowly away within 30 seconds or so. I always monitor the oil pressure and temperature before getting on it. I can feel the difference in whether or not the engine's ready to go by it's willingness to respond. If it takes an extra effort pressing the gas peddle to get the car up to speed, chances are the engine and fluids are still to cold, so I back off a little. I think the absolute worst thing to do is start an engine when it's really cold, and just let it sit there idling. With remote start, I'm guilty of doing this at work sometimes to pre-warm the seats and steering wheel, etc.. When at home, my car's garaged, so I CAN'T remote start it without asphyxiating everyone.
With the low viscosity synthetic oil and electronic fuel injection, I don't think wear is as bad nowadays starting a cold engine, but it is still a lot more stress in terms of wear due to tight tolerances and lack of optimal lubrication than a car started in warmer climates year around.
Idle 15 seconds in summer and 30 seconds in winter, then drive away softly for a few miles. I let it come up to full temp before driving it haphazardly.
I am in the Sacramento Valley where the engine can stay 100 degrees all night in summer and it never freezes in winter, well hardly ever drops below 32.
Start, let the evic and uconnect fully boot until I can engage sport and turn of TC and go. Cars are built very different than the were 30 years ago. It's equally as safe if not better to warm up the car under very easy driving then idle.
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