If the parts tolerances are tighter, I'd be letting it warm up a bit more, not less to let the dimensions settle a bit from thermal expansion. And I agree, they are not "MUCH tighter" if you actually compare the parts tolerances over the last 40 years.
Is there any practical benefit to letting a passenger car oil warm up before driving?
- Thread starter BrianApp
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That and the '03 6 speed likely the best Maximas to date.
cold-flow properties can also affect variable valve timing if so equipped.
The ECU most likely disables VVT or locks in a fixed parameter until the ECU sees a certain oil/engine temperature.
I've heard it said alot thru the years that most engine wear occurs at start up. Could that be because cold oil doesn't flow as fast thru the engine, as warm to hot oil does ? I'm sure everyone on this site has seen the tests where oil comes out of a freezer in a glass tube at 20 degrees f, and is poured out and timed to see how long it takes to go about 10 inches. It doesn't move anywhere as fast as warm oil does. So that tells me your not getting alot in the way of wear protection by taking off as soon as the engine fires off. I let my old Ford Exploder idle between 2-3 minutes before I start driving. Especially in cold winter months. No clicks ,no ticks, no funny noise's, the engine has never been opened up 280k miles.,,
My 07 Acura tl was an ultra low emission vehicle and would run rough for a couple minutes on a cold start. Honda programmed it to intentionally misfire when cold to heat up the cat quicker. I never drove it till the idle smoothes out and everything was warmed up. I moved on to infiniti
so don't know if Acuras still do that
so don't know if Acuras still do that
Parts the are directly supplied by the oil pump will get lubrication very quickly, if the correct cold viscosity (xW=Winter) rating is used for the start-up temperature. For parts that are lubricated by oil splash, obviously those parts may not get adequate lubrication until the oil warms up some. How splash lubricate parts get oil supply is mainly determined by the design of the engine and how the splashed oil is produced and where it goes while the engine is running. Engines with oil squirters will supply a better flow of oil to the cylinders and pistons than one without squirters.
The more heat you put into the oil, will definitely help the squirters do a better job.,,
If it's above 20F, I don't usually worry about letting it sit and run to warm up. I get in, start my van, put my seat belt on, check everything, and go making sure to drive it gently until the engine gets up to temp, at least a quarter way up the temp gauge. If it's getting down close to 0F or lower, then I will let it run for about 10 minutes some days before driving it.
As an example of tighter tolerances; We had a Toyota V8 engine in the shop. We had to tell the owner we can't machine his heads flat again as it will likely throw off his timing due to chain slack because of a loss of clearance on the deck. So he's got to hope the block is still flat and find new OEM heads...but at this point probably best just to find a used engine. This is not unique to Toyota. A number of new all aluminum builds can have the same issue.
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There wasn't a thicker head gasket available to take up what would be lost in the milling process?
No...
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OK, just curious. I know it has been done before.
I’ll leave it sit running 5 or 10 minutes when it’s a little cold out.
I always hear about fuel dilution being a potential problem with that but it hasn’t seemed to kill my vehicles yet.
I do always use a thicker oil than called for as all my vehicles spec 20or 30 grade oils and I just have never used thinner oils much.
Maybe that helps maybe not but a couple of my cars are getting up there in miles and are still alive so
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Yep we do it quite frequently when able. Mostly for FE blocks/heads though...and those not using metal gaskets.
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