Help me out with my engine warm up circumstances

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Nov 18, 2020
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302
Location
The Netherlands
When i leave home i always drive very calmly for the first 6 miles, not exceeding 3000 rpm and the consumption needle guage not exceeding 50% of the meter.
These types of n52 bmw engines where fitted with electric waterpumps which has intelligent warm up procedure by barely flowing the water while its cold to fasten up the warm up. The thermostat i ecu controlled. Also the engine has an oil/to water heat exchanger to fasten the oil warm up.

These cars are not fitted with a temp gauge. Its now at 242k miles.

But now the difficult situation comes where i leave work. The car has been standing for 12 hours and is cold. During winter times its around freezing point.

We are located near the highway and from cold start till where i enter the highway its less then 0.5 miles😕
I dont exceed 3000 rpm and do not let the consumption gauge exceed 50% (i guess approx 30 40% load) i very SLOWLY accelarate to arround 100mph in a matter of 5 miles and then i put it on cruise control to continue the remaning 25 miles on the highway.

Most of my colleagues floor it straight on the ramp to 100mph, i can barely watch the suffering:eek:

Car is on bmw ll04 5w30 spec shell helix (penzoil euro)

Whats your view/experience with how this car is warmed up. The speed may be pretty high but all in all the car does not see more then 30/40% load and its verry consistant. I dont want to blow the headgasket🙃
 
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I have almost identical conditions, now about .75 miles to the parkway. I lived about a half mile from the parkway in my prior location. All total well over 40 years of driving under those conditions, and never a problem with an engine, even engines with carburetors. I also take it slow getting to the parkway when the engine is cold. I think you're worrying needlessly, especially with an engine with 242k miles on it.
 
I think you are probably being a bit too conservative. I live in the midwest where temps can be well into the (-'s). I have the same situation where my place of work is literally at the base of the on-ramp to get onto the interstate where the limit is 65mph, but most are doing 70-75mph. My rule is to not exceed 50% of redline or 50% throttle input before the temp gauge shows normal operating temp. This usually gets me right to 65 mph by the time I am ready to merge in with traffic...with most every vehicle I have ever owned.
 
OP, Isn't there a lane that you can travel in at say 60 or 70 mph for a couple miles? Pistons have some play so they don't rub the cylinder walls in the first couple of minutes. You might be going a little too gently on the engine, but 242K on a BMW speaks for itself.
I think you're fine otherwise.
 
Yeah maybe going up to like 70mph for a couple of miles would be better. However its useally such a nice empty stretch of road so i want to get up to cruising speed. I managed it once before to unlock the service menu in the instrument cluster, then you can read out the engine temp. If i succeed that i will see tommorow how long it takes for the engine to reach about half of operating temp and full operating temp.

I cant see the oil temp without obd gauge but useally it takes about twice as long on most cars. After about 10 miles i get to a straight strecht and put cruise control at arround 120 mph. But by then it will be fully warmed up already.

I will let you know the result tomorrow, however hearing from you guys the way i do it now wont cause damage to the engine/especially headgasket.
Most people have no feeling for mechanical things and floor their cold cars every day. However i am the kind of person who only does it a couple of times and then ends up with a leaking headgasket😜
 
Drive away from the highway for five minutes then turn around. By the time you get back it should be warmed up.

You mean 100km/hr?
 
Any warming up could be done in the parking lot before exiting.

I used to live a stones throw from a 1/4 mile long inclined entrance ramp.
My car, a '66 Chrysler Newport, had an analog temperature gauge. As Winter became Spring you could see the needle rise sooner and sooner.

Once, at the base of the uphill climb, my thermostat was poised to open. Flooring it up the long hill made the temperature needle soar well past "normal".
It was nifty to see it drop down fast too.

The OP must work in a remote industrial / military zone on a highway with no limit. No going 100 mph on the Gowanus.
 
When i leave home i always drive very calmly for the first 6 miles, not exceeding 3000 rpm and the consumption needle guage not exceeding 50% of the meter.
These types of n52 bmw engines where fitted with electric waterpumps which has intelligent warm up procedure by barely flowing the water while its cold to fasten up the warm up. The thermostat i ecu controlled. Also the engine has an oil/to water heat exchanger to fasten the oil warm up.

These cars are not fitted with a temp gauge. Its now at 242k miles.

But now the difficult situation comes where i leave work. The car has been standing for 12 hours and is cold. During winter times its around freezing point.

We are located near the highway and from cold start till where i enter the highway its less then 0.5 miles😕
I dont exceed 3000 rpm and do not let the consumption gauge exceed 50% (i guess approx 30 40% load) i very SLOWLY accelarate to arround 100mph in a matter of 5 miles and then i put it on cruise control to continue the remaning 25 miles on the highway.

Most of my colleagues floor it straight on the ramp to 100mph, i can barely watch the suffering:eek:

Car is on bmw ll04 5w30 spec shell helix (penzoil euro)

Whats your view/experience with how this car is warmed up. The speed may be pretty high but all in all the car does not see more then 30/40% load and its verry consistant. I dont want to blow the headgasket🙃
Your warm up is fine and you are being careful with your engine. Guess you could take an additional 20 seconds to adjust your seatbelt, etc., before, starting home when it's colder. Keep your tire pressures perfect at those speeds.
 
When i leave home i always drive very calmly for the first 6 miles, not exceeding 3000 rpm and the consumption needle guage not exceeding 50% of the meter.
These types of n52 bmw engines where fitted with electric waterpumps which has intelligent warm up procedure by barely flowing the water while its cold to fasten up the warm up. The thermostat i ecu controlled. Also the engine has an oil/to water heat exchanger to fasten the oil warm up.

These cars are not fitted with a temp gauge. Its now at 242k miles.

But now the difficult situation comes where i leave work. The car has been standing for 12 hours and is cold. During winter times its around freezing point.

We are located near the highway and from cold start till where i enter the highway its less then 0.5 miles😕
I dont exceed 3000 rpm and do not let the consumption gauge exceed 50% (i guess approx 30 40% load) i very SLOWLY accelarate to arround 100mph in a matter of 5 miles and then i put it on cruise control to continue the remaning 25 miles on the highway.

Most of my colleagues floor it straight on the ramp to 100mph, i can barely watch the suffering:eek:

Car is on bmw ll04 5w30 spec shell helix (penzoil euro)

Whats your view/experience with how this car is warmed up. The speed may be pretty high but all in all the car does not see more then 30/40% load and its verry consistant. I dont want to blow the headgasket🙃

So your the guy always blocking the right lane on the Autobahn!
 
It sounds like an ideal situation to me Where the engine and Fluids get warmed up as quickly as safely possible.Keep it up you probably can relax a little without being abusive.
 
So this morning i logged in to the service menu.
I about 2 miles/ 4 minutes the engine coolant reaches 50 degrees Celcius. (Industrial area 40 mph)

After 5 minutes and 5 miles the engine reaches around 70 75 degrees celcius. (Freeway 70mph)

That all goes pretty quickly.

After 9 miles and 10 minutes it reaches 90 degrees celcius "normal" operating temp.
These last 4 miles are 100 mph highway.

No idea how long the oil takes to warm up but i guess at every point its around half of what the coolant is.

I will moniter the temperatures this evening when i leave here from work.

I have to add that this morning it was slightly below freezing point.
 
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Just did the drive home.

After about 45 seconds/0.5 mile at the end of the highway ramp its already 30 35 degrees celcius.

After 3 miles/3 minutes its 50 degrees celcius. (60mph and still slowly increasing)

After about 4/5 miles / 5mintues it reaches 70 degrees celcius. (80mph slowly increasing)

Cruising at 100 mph and 7 miles/10 minutes from cold start it is at 80 degrees celcius.

Then i need to go through a roadworks section 1 mile/30 mph to then continue at 120mph for about 20 minutes. You can clearly see the MAP/ecu controlled thermostat holding the temperature at exactyl 80 degrees varying only +- 1 max 2 degrees.

Reading it back like this i realize that in fact it takes much shorter time period then how it feels like when your driving. (not sure how to explain that correctly but basicly in 10 minutes the thermostat first opens already while that feels like you need to drive slow for half an hour.)

Then the new discusion comes that when is an engine really at operating temp/all parts are ''settled''? And at which temp range is an engine still too cold to put medium/heavy load on it?
When T stat first opens? after its been on this temperature for about 5 10 minutes? When the oil is at operating temp(which is probably savest one but usally takes 2 a 3 times as long as the coolant does to reach operating temp.)
 
Sounds like your practices are working. If you want a little more peace of mind, let it idle an extra 1-2 minutes before taking off. Don't worry, the way you take care of it, the engine will likely outlast the chassis.
 
Sounds like your practices are working. If you want a little more peace of mind, let it idle an extra 1-2 minutes before taking off. Don't worry, the way you take care of it, the engine will likely outlast the chassis.
Yeah thats true, main thing i want to prevent is to for example blow a headgasket. Although modern(post 2000 2005ish) engines are useally much less prone to that.
 
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