BITOG'ers.
As the weather continues to grow more cold here in NEOhio, a thought occurred to me today as I left work...
My commute home from work each day goes something like this:
Start Car. Fasten seatbelt. Drive out of the parking lot. Stop at the stop sign. Begin to accelerate up a fairly steep and long on-ramp and merge into traffic at 65-70 MPH. Pretty much 0 to 65 within 90 seconds of a cold start.
Obviously, I rev the engine as little as possible when cold, keeping it under 3k RPMs. Even so, there is a decent load on the engine as I push it up the on-ramp accelerating to 65MPH, shifting around 3k in each gear.
Does anyone think there is harm to be caused by this type of commute?? Avg winter temps around here are between 15-25 *F by the time I leave work in the dead of winter, so the engine is COLD. How much, if any, harm do you think it causes by making this commute? What could I do to reduce the harm this causes? (Block heater isn't an option, the parking lot isn't "wired")
Of course, a UOA would be the easiest and most definitive way to answer this question. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of an AutoRx rinse cycle on this motor, and wouldn't really trust the results just yet. And...I thought it would be kind of fun to solicit the opinion of those on the forum. Why not generate some healthy discussion!?
Vehicle is a '97 BMW 318i (M44). Current oil is Castrol conventional 10w-40 (because that was on sale when I started the AutoRx cycle). Next oil will be M1 0w-40 (because I have 6qts left that I won't use). By spring I'll have converted to Rotella T6 (because that's what I'll use in my wife's PD powered Jetta TDI).
Open to any thoughts or opinions. I might do a UOA on the M1 fill; but no data until then.
Thanks!
Matt
As the weather continues to grow more cold here in NEOhio, a thought occurred to me today as I left work...
My commute home from work each day goes something like this:
Start Car. Fasten seatbelt. Drive out of the parking lot. Stop at the stop sign. Begin to accelerate up a fairly steep and long on-ramp and merge into traffic at 65-70 MPH. Pretty much 0 to 65 within 90 seconds of a cold start.
Obviously, I rev the engine as little as possible when cold, keeping it under 3k RPMs. Even so, there is a decent load on the engine as I push it up the on-ramp accelerating to 65MPH, shifting around 3k in each gear.
Does anyone think there is harm to be caused by this type of commute?? Avg winter temps around here are between 15-25 *F by the time I leave work in the dead of winter, so the engine is COLD. How much, if any, harm do you think it causes by making this commute? What could I do to reduce the harm this causes? (Block heater isn't an option, the parking lot isn't "wired")
Of course, a UOA would be the easiest and most definitive way to answer this question. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of an AutoRx rinse cycle on this motor, and wouldn't really trust the results just yet. And...I thought it would be kind of fun to solicit the opinion of those on the forum. Why not generate some healthy discussion!?
Vehicle is a '97 BMW 318i (M44). Current oil is Castrol conventional 10w-40 (because that was on sale when I started the AutoRx cycle). Next oil will be M1 0w-40 (because I have 6qts left that I won't use). By spring I'll have converted to Rotella T6 (because that's what I'll use in my wife's PD powered Jetta TDI).
Open to any thoughts or opinions. I might do a UOA on the M1 fill; but no data until then.
Thanks!
Matt