| warm or cold |
| ride her cold |
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55% |
[ 52 ] |
| warm her up |
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44% |
[ 42 ] |
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| Total Votes : 94 |
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adv rider
Samba Member
Joined: September 09, 2012
Posts: 288
Location: Everett,wa
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 Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:21 am Post subject: WARM-UP |
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I Warm my vehicle. summer or winter- if I try to drive too soon- It bucks, and complains. Let it warm for 5-8 min, and no problems.
I'm sure it is something that I could adjust out, but it runs so good when warm. That I don't want to mess with it
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86' Wolfsburg weekender 2.1, 4spd, , merian brown |
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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 50338
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| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| Volksaholic wrote: |
John Muir of "How to keep your Volkswagen Alive: A step by step guide for the complete idiot" fame recommended a warm up period. If I recall correctly, it was the amount of time it took him to roll and smoke a cigarette.... or maybe it was to roll and light it. He didn't say what kind of "tobacco" he was rolling... I don't know if that makes a difference. 
Paul |
If you hold a fast idle on an air cooled engine for a minute or so the heads are going to be fairly warm as there is little thermal mass to heat up compared to the heads on a watercooled engine. The flip side is an air cooled engine cools off very quickly as well. With an AC'd on a 20°F day if I go into the supermarket for 15-20 minutes and the wind is blowing much at all the engine will have cooled enough the choke will be mostly closed on restart, and the heater boxes will be stone cold once again. Pretty much every winter start with an aircooled is a cold start, which is one reason the oil in these old girls needs to be changed so often. Extended idling doesn't do much beside accumulate water in the oil so, a minute's warm up to heat the heads enough so the engine runs smooth and then put the engine under load and get the oil hot nice and fast. |
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Jedi
Samba Member
Joined: October 23, 2007
Posts: 734
Location: Cool California
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| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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I always warm up. If its really cold like minus zero I wont drive it till the temp has reached the light. The water pump will not push frozen or hard coolant to the radiator until rpms hit 2000. I have a large box end wrench that can wedge between my pedal and heater vent. That revs me right at 2500. Very handy for camping while snowboarding in the high Sierra
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1961 Westfalia SO23 Mango Green/Seagull grey
1961 Westfalia SO34 T/BW
1961 Westfalia SO34 SWR
1964 Westfalia SO33 pearl white
1965 Westfalia SO42 Velvet green
1986 Syncro Wolfram grey with black int GL
1986 Syncro Doka
1987 Syncro Sevana beige Adventurewagen
1987 syncro Sevana beige GL
1973 Pumpkin orange Thing
2 1963 Rag top bug's
1965 Manx
1970 Single cab
1971 combi
1990 Vanagon GL
2007 Audi A4 3.2L quattro |
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?Waldo?
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2006
Posts: 9752
Location: Where?
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| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Extended idling or no-load warmups are just about the worst thing you can do to your engine aside from actual sabotage. |
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denwood
Samba Member
Joined: July 29, 2012
Posts: 1047
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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There is so much information out there on this topic, it's very, very clear. Idling is a waste of fuel in all respects, and best way to warm a vehicle is to drive it. We do see -35C here regularly during the winter, and my daily is an A3 TDI.
IF your work is only 2 miles away, you will use far less fuel (and be warmer) if you just preheat the van using a small electric heater plugged in inside, on a timer and use only enough defrost air flow to keep the windshield clear. 15 minutes with electric pre-heat should work fine. Using synthetics is a no-brainer IMHO, so by all means use synths and don't bother plugging in your van unless the temps require it. My cutoff for plugging the actual vehicle in is -15 to -20C (-4) for both the TDI and our CRV. I don't drive the van too often in the winter.
Look at the strategies used by cars like the Nissan Leaf electric in cold weather. They do the heated seat, wheel and interior pre-heat routine as heat demands are a big current drain for an all-electric...the strategies make good sense for a gasser too as 2 miles is not enough to get much if any heat going in a vanagon. Because the boxer has no provision for a block heater sitting in coolant (rather unusual I might add) if you do insist on heat in the van, preheating coolant is a much better buzz for your buck than warming oil. The stock vanagon block heater is almost embarrassingly inefficient...a lot of power consumed in an external brick heating oil by conduction..sheesh.
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Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape |
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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 50338
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| Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Andrew A. Libby wrote: |
| Extended idling or no-load warmups are just about the worst thing you can do to your engine aside from actual sabotage. |
2x, Yeap warming your car up slowly before driving creates the "cold start wear" that so many worry about.
| Jedi wrote: |
| If its really cold like minus zero I wont drive it till the temp has reached the light. The water pump will not push frozen or hard coolant to the radiator until rpms hit 2000 |
If your coolant is turning to slush you need to add more antifreeze. You can't push coolant through a frozen radiator no matter the engine speed and no coolant will be flowing to the radiator anyway until the engine is warm and the thermostat opens. |
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