Warm up

Why not on high?

 

On high and recirc.- All available engine heat is used to warm up cab, cab warms up faster, engine slow to warm up.
On high and outside- All available engine heat is used to warm up cab, cab warms up slower due to using colder outside air, engine slow to warm up.
On med and recirc- Less engine heat is used to warm up cab, engine warms up faster but cab slower.
Fan off- Engine warms up faster but cab icy cold.
Driving off as soon as windows clear after starting- Engine and cab warm up fast even with fan on high but cab will warm up faster on recirc. in extreme cold but windows may steam up if left on recirc for extended period.

 

Interesting! Thanks for the information.

 

As others have said, no more than about 30 seconds, at most, of run time is needed on a very cold start IF using a modern synthetic engine oil. The truck will warm much more quickly when under load.

As part of standard development testing, we cold soak powertrains down to -25F in the lab, fire the unit and immediately apply 100% load at 100% throttle. After holding this state at max temps for the designated amount of time, the unit is shutdown and quickly cooled back to -25F. This cycle is repeated many times and it is VERY rare for any problems to be observed on a standard production powertrain.

 

What sort of powertrains? Have seen lots of large backup diesel generators and pumps start up under full load but were usually 0 to 20 deg C when starting. Some would rattle and bang when starting up but never suffered any ill effects. Two stroke snowmobile engines will sometimes "cold seize" if loaded up too soon but they are the only engines I have heard of requiring warmup.

 

Gasoline, diesel and hybrid units in commercially available vehicles.

Most of the time, the testing is completed with no issues at all for standard production units. That being said, I have seem many prototype units violently fail and go out in a fireball of glory.

 

how 'bout the ones that were warmed up at idle for a number of minutes? how frequently did they blow up?

 

Thermal expansion testing is done at worst case, no warm up is done.
Plenty get destroyed during piston protection cal development testing through.

Warm up cycles are typically only done on production units from the manufacturing floor as part of break-in cycles prior to unit testing.

 

My garage is heated and doesn't usually drop below 50.

That's how I solve that problem!

 

I have had good results with Amsoil dominator and the Red Line equivalent in the past in both track applications and around town. A lot of people say it's snake oil, but my experience is the engine does warm up quicker, and according to my IR gun and bluedriver, I average a few degrees cooler when at operating temp. It's basically a surfactant with some more anti-wear additives that makes heat transfer a little more efficient from metal into the liquid. You add about 1oz per quart of coolant in the system, there's nothing really special about it, but it helps a little bit and might work for you.

 

You need to drive. Wait 2-3 min idle if you want but you have to drive it to warm up quickly. I find this truck takes a lot longer to warm up even while driving compared to my 05 Tundra with the 4.0 V6. That engine warm ups very fast.

 

Agree. Fastest way is to drive it. -40 is not uncommon here in the winter, so idling doesn’t do much to get you up to operating temp. My last truck had a high idle that came on automatically in the cold, and even then I found the best way to get it up to temp is to just drive it.

If you’re just trying to feel warm, heated seats are the way to go, the heat is almost instant, and they make aftermarket versions that work pretty well. My last truck had a heated steering wheel, and that’s one thing I never new I wanted until I got this truck without one.