Is any damage done?

I have seen users talking about not driving right away untill their engine is warmed up first, does cold starting and driving instantly damage the engine or anything? Are their some benefits? Besides your truck being nice and warm.

Thanks

 

Allowing a cycle to warm up fluids in engine and transmission is a good thing.

 

Search "warm up". Not trying to be a dick but there have been a lot of threads on this and very mixed opinions. Personally, I let the truck warm up. My mentality is oils thicken when they're cold so why make the engine work harder when it's stone cold. If running that cold wasn't an issue, they wouldn't make block heaters for gas engines. Again, my opinion and you'll get plenty of responses saying the exact opposite and some against letting a cold engine idle, etc. Basically get ready for a crapstorm of opinions.

 

if it is frozen outside, i tend to let it warm up. if not, i drive very very slowly away.

 

I give it about 30 seconds when it is cool, maybe 45-60 seconds when it is cold. Anything more than that are you are wasting gas and time. Although I drive like a little old lady until it is all the way warmed.

 

Try sitting a bottle of the oil you use in your truck outside in the cold overnight and examine it. I always let it run for at least a full minute at idle. It can't hurt. Thousands of RPM's and sub zero temps, I don't take any chances.

 

There is so many different theories on this. From what I understand give it about 30 secs and take it slow, keep the rpms down, untill you feel heat from the heater. Then your good to go. Sometimes I'll warm mine up if I have snow and ice just to make it easier to scrape. I have actually heard its bad for it to just sit there and idle. But you will probably get alot of different opinions on this.

 

my Z06 had a oil temp gauge, you wouldn't believe how long it took the oil to get up to operating temp (140-180deg) i drove it on a cool fall day once let it warm up for about 5 min and then took off, drove almost 10mi before the oil temp came up to normal


on that note if i'm home or anywhere but work i start my truck and try to let it run for 5min, i dont care about burning just that little bit of extra gas, just cause your temp gauge is going up doesn't mean your oil temp is, it takes ALOT longer, if i'm at work i usually start it and let it run for a min or 2, then i have a idleing crawl thru the parking lot just trying to get out of there that lasts a couple min, i drive it like a grandma anyways

 

I always wondered about this, hopefully it doesnt hurt it to bad considering if my pager goes off and I have to get to the FD I start my truck and go.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, it has been getting quite cold here but I guess I will let it run for a bit just to be on the safe side.

 

I try to let mine run for a few minutes before going anywhere but like I said in previous post sometimes its

1) Page goes off
2) Boots on
3) Start truck
4) Get to FD quickly

 

There are many times I have the truck started, in gear and driving away less than 3 seconds. Never had an issue.

However, I do not make a habit of doing that...only when I'm late for something. And I don't think I would do it on a sub-zero day.

I also don't rev it out when I first take off.

 

I dont either (rev it)

I like it idle out the drive to the stop sign usually roll the stop sign (depending on what time it is, this is usually midnight to 4am) I only do it if its safe.

Then I give it slight gas to the light and get to the FD

 

Good stuff how did you learn this?

 

2 things


1) So its bad to let it sit and idle if its cold?

2) I love your sig about the bitching lol

 

+1. BMW engineers also agree with this. It's in the owners manual to drive the car to warm it up and just to keep the RPM's lower for a few minutes.

I guess people could argue with this based on their own research and development of engines.

 

Yes. My dad owned an E46 M3 and they sent a letter out to owners (back in 02 or so) stating the best way to warm up the car is by driving it (and staying under the "yellow line" of the tach, which increased with engine temp.

There are many other vital fluids in the car that have a warm up time (like diffs etc) so just because the engine is warmed up then hammering it isn't the best idea.