View Poll Results: How long do you warm up you engine
None, start it and go!
305
36.40%
About 20 sec., until rpm drops to 1200.
321
38.31%
About 2 min., until rpm drops to 1000.
176
21.00%
However long it takes to get water temp up. (post what temp)
36
4.30%
Voters: 838. You may not vote on this poll
How long do you warm up your engine?
Sorry ... didn't notice the question...
Piston rings rely mostly on the gas pressure of combustion to press them up against the cylinder wall. At idle, cylinder pressure is low, so there is a lot of "blow by". When the engine is cold, this is even worse since much of the blow by is water. The water and other combustion products contaminates the oil.
Piston rings rely mostly on the gas pressure of combustion to press them up against the cylinder wall. At idle, cylinder pressure is low, so there is a lot of "blow by". When the engine is cold, this is even worse since much of the blow by is water. The water and other combustion products contaminates the oil.
Lead Lap
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 745
Likes: 1
From: California
Oh, good explanation. It's just that have you notice on a cool or cold morning, your car will be knocking like crazy if you drive it right away? Once it's warmed up, the noise completely dissapears besides the normal light ticking sound. Like this morning, I tried just taking off even though the outside temps is like 51 degrees. Wow, it literally sounds like something was tapping under the hood. Then after about 5-10 minutes of driving, it's gone completely. What could that be caused by?
Pole Position
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 266
Likes: 0
From: NY
Sorry ... didn't notice the question...
Piston rings rely mostly on the gas pressure of combustion to press them up against the cylinder wall. At idle, cylinder pressure is low, so there is a lot of "blow by". When the engine is cold, this is even worse since much of the blow by is water. The water and other combustion products contaminates the oil.
Piston rings rely mostly on the gas pressure of combustion to press them up against the cylinder wall. At idle, cylinder pressure is low, so there is a lot of "blow by". When the engine is cold, this is even worse since much of the blow by is water. The water and other combustion products contaminates the oil.
I fell asleep in my car with my engine idling for 2 hours the other night, is that bad? lolz
Lead Lap
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 745
Likes: 1
From: California
A modern engine doesn't need to be warmed up before you drive it. The only exception would be if you lived within a few hundred yards of the entrance ramp to a freeway, and you had to start the car and merge into 80 mph traffic within about 30 seconds. Otherwise, you're just wasting fuel. 30 seconds or so is sufficient. I should also add that letting your engine idle for long periods of time will cause excessive wear and actually slows the warm-up process considerably. An engine under load will warm up much more quickly than one that is idling.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
Last edited by LexusIS-TL; Dec 8, 2007 at 10:03 PM.
Pole Position
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 266
Likes: 0
From: NY
A modern engine doesn't need to be warmed up before you drive it. The only exception would be if you lived within a few hundred yards of the entrance ramp to a freeway, and you had to start the car and merge into 80 mph traffic within about 30 seconds. Otherwise, you're just wasting fuel. 30 seconds or so is sufficient. I should also add that letting your engine idle for long periods of time will cause excessive wear and actually slows the warm-up process considerably. An engine under load will warm up much more quickly than one that is idling.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,708
Likes: 2
From: SC
A modern engine doesn't need to be warmed up before you drive it. The only exception would be if you lived within a few hundred yards of the entrance ramp to a freeway, and you had to start the car and merge into 80 mph traffic within about 30 seconds. Otherwise, you're just wasting fuel. 30 seconds or so is sufficient. I should also add that letting your engine idle for long periods of time will cause excessive wear and actually slows the warm-up process considerably. An engine under load will warm up much more quickly than one that is idling.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
The temp gauge shows your coolant temperature, not the engine temp... If you give your car several seconds to work the oil around all moving parts and don't run your RPMs past 2500 (on a regular combustion engine) for that first 5 minutes, you'll be fine.
