I think it's safe to say it's agreed upon around here that it can be detrimental to beat on a car/engine before it's warmed up. Sometimes compromises must be made (e.g. when you're driving a car that just doesn't have much power) but when dealing with cars that have surplus power you've got more of a choice in terms of how to drive it while it's warming up.
Suppose you have two cars with relatively equal power, but one has a larger NA engine (bigger displacement, more cylinders) and one has a smaller, turbocharged engine. In general, would you treat them the same, or would you be easier on the turbo one?
For the sake of discussion, let's compare an NA V8 with a turbo I4, and to make the comparison even better let's say that the displacement of the V8 is exactly double that of the I4 (so the combustion chambers are the same size). So you've got the same displacement per cylinder, and the same number of main bearings and crankpins getting the combustion forces (although the 8 will have 2 cyls per crankpin). The only difference is that the 4 is burning "double" the fuel/air mix in each cylinder.
Do you assume that the 4 is more highly stressed and thus should be treated more gently, or do you assume that both engines are built to withstand the same treatment? It seems to me that the bottom end shouldn't "care" since it's similar between the two, and each part of the crankshaft is getting exposed to basically the same magnitude of force, and that the cylinders and pistons had better be beefier in the 4 anyway since it's a F/I application.
And that's just the engine side of the question.. what about the turbo itself? In a performance car it's easy to think of the turbo as an add-in that should be pampered as necessary, but more "pedestrian" cars are starting to come turbocharged too. I seriously doubt all the VW TDIs and Chevy Cruze 1.4t's being driven around are going to be babied before warm-up all the time -- no more than a VW 2.5 or a Chevy Cruze 1.8 would be anyway. And in a non performance application, you're going to need a higher percentage of peak power just driving around than you would in a performance application with more power, so it seems like the turbo would be worked harder anyway.
I'd guess most of BITOG would err on the side of easy treatment, but what say you? Is "an engine an engine" when it comes to how you use its power output during warmup and while driving around, or does how the power is delivered have a large affect on the way you drive?
Suppose you have two cars with relatively equal power, but one has a larger NA engine (bigger displacement, more cylinders) and one has a smaller, turbocharged engine. In general, would you treat them the same, or would you be easier on the turbo one?
For the sake of discussion, let's compare an NA V8 with a turbo I4, and to make the comparison even better let's say that the displacement of the V8 is exactly double that of the I4 (so the combustion chambers are the same size). So you've got the same displacement per cylinder, and the same number of main bearings and crankpins getting the combustion forces (although the 8 will have 2 cyls per crankpin). The only difference is that the 4 is burning "double" the fuel/air mix in each cylinder.
Do you assume that the 4 is more highly stressed and thus should be treated more gently, or do you assume that both engines are built to withstand the same treatment? It seems to me that the bottom end shouldn't "care" since it's similar between the two, and each part of the crankshaft is getting exposed to basically the same magnitude of force, and that the cylinders and pistons had better be beefier in the 4 anyway since it's a F/I application.
And that's just the engine side of the question.. what about the turbo itself? In a performance car it's easy to think of the turbo as an add-in that should be pampered as necessary, but more "pedestrian" cars are starting to come turbocharged too. I seriously doubt all the VW TDIs and Chevy Cruze 1.4t's being driven around are going to be babied before warm-up all the time -- no more than a VW 2.5 or a Chevy Cruze 1.8 would be anyway. And in a non performance application, you're going to need a higher percentage of peak power just driving around than you would in a performance application with more power, so it seems like the turbo would be worked harder anyway.
I'd guess most of BITOG would err on the side of easy treatment, but what say you? Is "an engine an engine" when it comes to how you use its power output during warmup and while driving around, or does how the power is delivered have a large affect on the way you drive?