Engine takes long to heat up

Not really an option for me. Within a 30 second drive from the house I'm in highway speed traffic in the mountains. Damned if I do and damned if I don't. I'm hoping to be out of this house before the end of winter and living somewhere more to my liking. I miss my (ex's) farm

 

ahh. Well a 5min warm up and just dont floor her to get on the freeway and you should be good. Either way its a toyota and probably wouldnt care if you let it sit there and idle all day, or hopped in and started doing a burnout.

 

I added oil temp and oil pressure gauges. I can tell you that oil temp comes up quite a bit slower than water temp. Coolant can be fully warmed up and I've had to cut back the temp setting to keep from burning myself up, but the oil temps may only just be off the peg of the gauge (this is 100F).

This morning the temp was right at 20F outside, I cranked the truck to let it defrost the windshield and let it idle for about 6-8 minutes before I left. I was turning the heater temp back within a mile or so from the house and the temp gauge on the truck was reading right where it normally runs and the oil temp was right off the lower peg at 100F. It usually takes 10-15 minutes to get up to 180F oil temps.

For what it's worth, I put the gauges in when I still ran 5W-30 synthetic oil, with temps like we had this morning, about 15-20F, the 100 psi gauge would be pegged. I've ran 0W-30 since the change at around 20k miles, the lowest temp I saw was -22F running the 0W-30 and oil pressure was 90 psi.

I try to take it easy until oil temps come up to 150F or so. The key learning is that even though the coolant temps look ok, in cold weather, oil temps are likely not in their optimum range, so take it easy for 10-15 miles to let it warm up.

 

This exactly. Fuel is an excellent cleaner. Cold motor equals extra fuel sprayed into the cylinders breaking down the oil. The quicker the engine warms, the better.

 

This is what popular mechanics says!


http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a19086/warming-up-your-car-in-the-cold-just-harms-engine/

 

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/ontario/toronto

-19C (-2 F) and -26C (-15 F) with the windchill. just give it time it'll warm up.

 

always let my taco warm up before driving it. no ill effects that i know of. ill be doing it with the 4 runner too. its damn cold outside lol

 

Idling puts greater wear and tear on the engine. It takes longer for the engine to heat up when idling so your running the truck longer before oil reaches operating temp, also oil doesn’t circulate as well in idle.

The fastest way to heat up a vehicle is to drive it.


———————————-

Its been below 10 F here the last week. In a cold truck takes me 15-20 minutes of city driving for my temp gauge to reach the middle.

OP if the goal is to get more heat faster you could add a grill vent.

 

Much ado about nothing in this thread really. My stepdad had a new 93 Dakota,and ran regular Penzoil. When the truck was started,it was immediately put in gear and drove away,no matter the temperature. I acquired that truck with 205k on it,and I put another 10k driving it exactly how he did,with the same regular oil. Truck ran tip-top and probably would've rusted away before it died. It's cold here,been in the negatives all week and single digits. I start my truck,put on seat belt,put in gear,adjust whatever I need then drive away,45 seconds max. I sure as hell ain't wasting anymore gas than I need to idling in the driveway.

 

Ahhh the proverbial beating of the dead horse. From what I've read and know the ideal way is to start and get going s-l-o-w-l-y until it is warm. Let's see from where I live if I go east the speed limit is 55... hmmm that's not s-l-o-w. If I go to the west I'll have to turn in front of crazed school teens that have passed me on a double yellow line trying to get out from behind that crazy Tacoma going so s-l-o-w. Oh yeah and this time of year (with the cold) all this while I'm freezing my you-know-whats off. Naw... in these temps I'm backing out of the garage, turning the heat/defrost on full blast, turning on the seat warmer and running back inside for several minutes... to hell with my cylinders (least until this crazy cold is gone). Thanx OP for the discussion.

 

It seems like this truck does take longer to warm up than my last few rigs though. I think I'll typically be driving for about 5 minutes before it's even registering on the gauge, but with other vehicles it seemed like I would only get a block or two from my place before they were showing. Does anyone know what the temp range is on the gauge? Maybe it's just showing a really narrow range so it's not indicating anything until it's close to it's normal temp? I'll have to hook my ultragauge up to it sooner or later and find out. Not really that big of a deal though.

 

Where did all this cylinder wash down nonsense come from? Maybe in the pre-80's when vehicles were carbed.

 

Engines run rich when cold. Hence extra fuel sprayed in to cylinders, some of which doesn’t burn when cold.

 

The gauge on the dash is definitely a dummy gauge (as are most temp gauges on modern vehicles with no numerical markings). Its realitivly linear from cold to its normal spot. But the needle will HARDLY move between coolant temps in a normal operating range of ~ 175-205*f. Get above 212*F and she will start moving up.

 

Yes,the vehicle is in open loop at startup,but I doubt it's dumping too much fuel that it's washing down the cylinders.

 

I let my truck idle to warm up in the winter, pretty much a necessity below -20. I send oil samples for testing and there has been no degradation of the oil due to fuel or longer idle times. My last oil change sample tested fine and was used in the engine in an ambient temperature range of -58 to +95.

 

The reason it runs extra fuel is because some fuel doesnt burn when cold. The point is, the longer the engine is cold, the longer is pumping extra fuel into the cylinder.

 

It’s not about degrading the oil.

 

I understand,I'm just saying cylinder "washdown" is not happening on a modern fuel injected engine during idling unless you have a bad injector.

 

If the cylinder was being washed down with excess fuel that would show on the oil report as excess wear metals, fuel in the oil and degraded oil.