Do diesels take longer to heat up?

[930.engineering]

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This is commonplace. Diesels take more time to warm up. It has ever been that way
and went even worse with DI Diesel engines about 20 years ago. In case of the OP's
N47 I'm fairly sure his BMW has an electric auxiliary heater. Ensure it's enabled in the
climate/HVAC menu. You should feel some lightly warm air about one minute or so
after start, provided the heater is set on/automatic air condition set to an appropriate
temperature and the vehicle's battery is suffciently charged (due to the BMW's battery
management system that will switch off unnessesary items when battery charge is low).

Without further research I'd guess an average N47 (18d/20d) is about 170 to 180 kg,
while a gas N20 or B48 (18i, 20i, 25i) will be close to or slightly less than 150 kg, resulting
in a difference of between 20 and 35 kg. Both are mainly aluminum but liners are likely
cast iron and internals are steel. Perhaps some Diesels also have more coolant.
Additionally Diesel gearboxes are commonly heavier as most Diesel engines deliver higher
torque values even when HP numbers are lower, but that doesn't necessarily contribute to
thermal mass. In some cases it does though as many automatic transmissions are heated
via an oil/coolant heat exchanger from the same coolant circuit shared with the engine.

Get a Webasto or Eberspächer heater or a DEFA electric preheater at least - problem solved.
The latter is much cheaper and can be run in a garage. Diesel burning heaters are way more
independendly to use (virtually anywhere except in an enclosed building) but they're rather
expensive.
.

 

[mightymousetech]

I also have to add, you guys don’t know long warm up times until you drive a diesel smart car in -40C Canadian winter. Heat? Ya right! Even with the electric heater booster, was like being coughed on by a hamster. 800cc of turbo diesel fury!

 

[antonmnster]

Diesels draw their full their air volume each stroke, keeping the cylinders cold. No throttle plate limiting the air volume. My diesel equipment only got comfortable after a half hour of operation. I couldn’t even get decent power out of a new Holland tractor unless it was running for a half hour. I really want a diesel bmw but I also don’t want to freeze to death.

 

[Popsy]

I always had diesel or electric additional heaters in my diesel. Getting warmer air in less than a minute.
Comparatively, I always thought gas engine took longer to heat (my Mazda is particularly slow for that), until today's realization struck.

 

[pezzy84]

The '11 TDI in our sig will actually drop down from regular operating temperature if sitting and idling in stop and go traffic when it's in the 30's.

Fortunately it has an aux heater that kicks heat some heat out nearly immediately. Based on my experiences with my departed '12 TDI it seems VW has programmed the 2.0 TDI to basically run something similar (or same?) to a regeneration cycle during initial warmup that helps speed up the warmup, 1000 RPM idle and the typical regeneration whine/whistle. Blow torch mode?

 

[53' Stude]

I would like OVERKILL to chime in on this as he had a diesel Ram pickup I believe. Hope he chimes in

 

[supton]

Loved the electric seat heater in my TDi, I left it on from Oct to April.

Hated if we took an ice storm, leave idling for 20 minutes just to soften the windshield a bit so I could scrape. Thankfully that wasn’t that often.