How long to warm up on cold days?

This^^^^ From Popular Mechanics, August 2019:

In the thick of winter, the common wisdom is that when you are gearing up to take your truck out in the cold and snow, you should step outside, start up your engine, and let it idle to warm up. But contrary to popular belief, this does not prolong the life of your engine; in fact, it decreases it by stripping oil away from the engine's cylinders and pistons.


When your engine is cold, the gasoline is less likely to evaporate and create the correct ratio of air and vaporized fuel for combustion. Engines with electronic fuel injection have sensors that compensate for the cold by pumping more gasoline into the mixture. The engine continues to run rich in this way until it heats up to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

"That's a problem because you're actually putting extra fuel into the combustion chamber to make it burn and some of it can get onto the cylinder walls," Stephen Ciatti, a mechanical engineer who specializes in combustion engines at the Argonne National Laboratory

"Gasoline is an outstanding solvent and it can actually wash oil off the walls if you run it in those cold idle conditions for an extended period of time." The life of components like piston rings and cylinder liners can be significantly reduced by gasoline washing away the lubricating oil.

I live in upper New England and in the Winter if I let my truck idle (to warm it up) it takes forever. I know this because when I bought last year (in November) that is what I did. During that time, the cylinder walls are getting scrubbed by all the gasoline that is being dumped into the cylinders and effectively diluting the oil and scrubbing the cylinder bores.

A couple of times I was late for work and just jumped in and went. No warm up at all. I was stunned to find out the truck warmed up much faster. Had heat/defrost going in no time (compared to letting it sit and idle). That faster warm up means less fuel washing the cylinders, diluting the oil, and scrubbing the walls (due to less time spent in a rich fuel condition).

 

I block heater is good if you have to park outside.

 

A few minutes works. Used to live in OH. And my 07 4runner always ran well in winter, sometimes in -10° temps. Metal suspension sometimes groans a bit but no issues.

It takes a few minutes to scrape the ice and snow off anyways, & heat up the defrost, might as well let it run.

 

Minnesota here - only as long as it takes to scrape ice and snow off the windows as vehicles don't warm up well when they're not under load. Otherwise 5-10 seconds and driven gently until warm.

 

I let it sit for 15-30secs and then just drive really easy until it warms up. Letting it idle for 10mins is great as for cabin comfort but doesnt do the truck any better.

Got to be careful with letting it idle these days, thats not popular amungst the Greta fanboys. Theres bylaws against it in some areas.

 

I usually give it three minutes if it’s colder out than -10c and accelerate lightly at the beginning of the drive. If it’s a brutal day like -25c to -35c I give it 6 or 7mins for cab and truck to warm up a bit. Block heater on 4-hour timer Is used if colder than -18c outside.

 

Yes, in theory this is the case. However, unless you are one of the few who "drives their car till the wheels fall off" most drivers won't keep their cars long enough to notice the difference. I have yet to keep a car past 200k and have been warming them up for 5-10 minutes in the winter and have yet to see any issues. With that said, even if it caused my engine to grenade earlier, I still don't care (just my opinion), I'd still rather get into a warm car for me and my family then have them all shivering in the dead of winter.

Again, just my opinion and preference. To each their own.

 

I just start, put my seat belts on and drive slowly for about a minute which gets me out of my subdivision. The idea is you want to heat the engine as quickly as practically possible and an engine under some load heats faster. Where I live I don't deal with much sub zero temps, and I do keep it in the garage which isn't heated but never gets below freezing. Back in the day when I lived in a cold climate and didn't have a garage, I'd sometimes need to get up in the middle of the night and run my cars for 10-15 minutes or I'd never get it started in the morning. Glad those days are in the rear view mirror.

 

this, but in Fahrenheit.

Around freezing or when there’s frost, I start the truck and turn on the defroster, wipe the windows off if it snowed, load the kids, and drive away.

I plug in below 0F and have a timer set to turn on about two hours before it’s time to leave the house. The rest of the routine remains the same.

 

I remember the oldman hanging a trouble light down by the block of his '58 Ford when shit got real in winter, un-heated garage.
IF I can feel my fingers, I light it & launch it...

 

I work with a lot of different types of engines, some with tens of thousands of hours on them and the prestart/run procedures are virtually all the same. Check fluids, system intact, start, repeat. Run without load until break over lube oil temp is reached then place under load. Regardless of outside temp and across my 3 vehicles (taco, rx8, chopper) I always wait for the idle RPM drop then drive lightly until I reach normal operating temperature by keeping the RPM below a certain threshold.

 

I let it idle while I scrape or brush off the windows and drive it slowly after that. I don't live near highways so highway speeds aren't an issue.

 

To error is human; to forgive, divine

 

You get in and start the vehicle, activate the electric heater on the vehicle, you strap your seat belt on, look all the way around, put it in park, check the camera while backing up, now just drive it forward at moderate speeds for a couple miles before letting the hammer down.
The moderate speed driving is so the tires, shocks, suspension, rear axle have time to lubricate/adjust. Idling the engine for 10 minutes won’t help all other components and your engine does not require it when using the factory recommended oil.

Hope this helps
Chills! Brrr…

 

You don't actually need the truck to warm up much before you drive it. It will get up to temperature faster while driving which is better than letting it idle until warm. The quicker you can get it up to temp the better, just don't drive it at 3500rpm.