Warming up the truck still necessary?

Just carrying on the aviation themed posts.

 

Hmmm, I was a paperboy for the Detroit News between 1966 and 1972 and saw weeks on end below -20°F; the only time it bothered me was when I lost my hat during one particularly cold stretch. I love snow and cold.

 

I’ve worked in -40° and 100°, I’ll take the cold and snow any day.

 

Finally something we can agree on.

 

Its obvious you guys are tougher than I.
My congrats to you all.

I just have a difficult time being in the cold.

My best to you and yours ..

 

I can put more clothes on and be warm but there’s just no getting around being hot and sweaty if that’s what the weather is doing. It’s not bad on a vacation in shorts and sandals but working in it just kills me.

 

You are right about that as long as it is -30 F (or -40 degrees, both F and C)

Also, if other family members and the dog ride with you, all their breaths will fog-up the windows and windshield, and then turn to ice. Tracking snow into the cabin will also fog-up the windows and windshield as soon as warm air comes out the vents.

At -30 F the V6 takes over 10 minutes of driving before "barely" some warm (and I mean nearly cold) air comes out of the defrost vents, not enough to defrost the windshield for a safe driving. At such low temperatures the engine makes a racket on a cold start that may last several minutes. Even a V8 like the one in my Tundra makes a lot of noise on such a cold start, and takes 10 minutes or longer of driving from 30-45 MPH to "barely" produce sufficient hot air to defrost the windshield.

What some folks don't understand is that it takes a long time, regardless if you drive slowly to warm the engine or not, for the warm air to heat the heater core and the plastic pipes that bring the warmed air to the vents. The temperature of the antifreeze has to come up before the thermostat opens enough for the antifreeze to circulate through the heater core. The Tacoma does not have electric heaters to warm the air being blown into the cabin. The already extremely cold antifreeze circulating in the heater core is further cooled by the -30 degrees air being sucked into the cabin by the heater's fan.

Now that I am retired I just stay home, but when in the workforce back in the '90s I would drive an old F-150 truck (300 inline-6 engine) to work at -45 F. At those temperatures your safety is at risk, because drive belts and CV-boot rubber covers can snap. Those were the last years that I drove when the temperature dropped below -30. It is not worth it at all unless it is an emergency. In the '90s we had about a week of -45 to -65 degrees. When it reached -20 art felt like summer. No kidding! At -37 and colder, you can toss the hot coffee in your cup up in the air, and it turns to iced fog before it reaches the ground.

 

?? What's the problem

 

That's the truth. It feels like you are towing a heavy trailer. Right?

I had a 2001 Silverado with a 325 Vortex engine that is known for making a racket during cold starts from piston slap and hydraulic lifters. It would take several minutes of idling for the noise to come down some, and if one would try to drive it to warm the engine, the racket would increase as soon as the RPM would reach 1,100. I could not risk destroying the engine, so I just let the ECU take care of the engine warming (idling). Once the temperature reached about the 1/4 mark on the gage, the engine was as smooth and quiet as butter. The thing didn't have leaks anywhere, and didn't burn any oil. I nearly gave it away to a friend of mine in 2023, when the odometer read 217,000 miles of driving, and he loves the old truck because everything works, and is very comfortable on the open road. It just makes noise on cold starts, even during the summer.

 

Take a look at this video. Just click on the "Coffee video" and ignore the rest.
Never mind. Those are video shorts. However if you search at YouTube for "toss hot coffee in the air at -40 degrees, you will find several showing what happens to hot coffee tossed in the air at -30 and colder. It just turns to ice-fog.

Well, I found this one about hot water towed in the air at -50 degrees F. By the way, it can be a fe degrees below 0 for water to turn to fog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJqMN_hH6zI

 

All this cold is better/hot is better talk…

why don’t yall just move somewhere that stays nice year round?

 

Wow, who pissed in your cheerios this morning? No need to be so nasty.

 

I live in the Northern Northeast and have had three 4-cyl B2300 Volvo's in the past. They all racked up 300,000+ miles each with no failures. oil consumption, or anything else. Sometimes it was so cold, the transmission (Aisan in those days) would occasionally give a very sluggish initial engagement to Drive. That's it.

Beyond the time it took to put a seat-belt on, adjust the mirror and put it in Drive, I never warmed any of them up before taking off. Just Start-Shift-Drive unless I had to scrape the windshield or brush off the snow. YMMV

 

Raised in NM and lived in Phoenix for several years and now in Arkansas. I’d rather it be 90 than 40 any day. Can’t take the cold. The summers here in Arkansas can be tough though with temps up around 100 or above and 60-70% humidity. That’s what Cambodia or Laos must feel like. But I’ll take that over the cold hands down.

 

Thinking about the issue again, I want enough WIU just to make sure that all the P&C's, rings, cam, rods have got their lubrication. Fifteen seconds, two minutes - whatever.
It makes sense to get it warm faster, you should drive sooner.

 

20 pages, YaY....

 

Up here in Maine, we've enjoyed some single and below digit mornings this winter, so I give it ~five minutes. On more temperate days, that 15ish seconds of engine comfortably idling is my go ahead. Unless, I'm in an action movie, or some serious shit is going down. The folks up this way slamming into gear right after startup on a cold engine makes me cringe.