In the thick of winter, the common wisdom is that when you are gearing up to take your truck out in the cold and snow, you should step outside, start up your engine, and let it idle to warm up. But contrary to popular belief, this does not prolong the life of your engine; in fact, it decreases it by stripping oil away from the engine's cylinders and pistons.
In a nutshell, an internal combustion engine works by using pistons to compress a mixture of air and vaporized fuel within a cylinder. The compressed mixture is then ignited to create a combustion event-a little controlled explosion that powers the engine.

When your engine is cold, the gasoline is less likely to evaporate and create the correct ratio of air and vaporized fuel for combustion. Engines with electronic fuel injection have sensors that compensate for the cold by pumping more gasoline into the mixture. The engine continues to run rich in this way until it heats up to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
"That's a problem because you're actually putting extra fuel into the combustion chamber to make it burn and some of it can get onto the cylinder walls," Stephen Ciatti, a mechanical engineer who specializes in combustion engines at the Argonne National Laboratory, told Business Insider. "Gasoline is an outstanding solvent and it can actually wash oil off the walls if you run it in those cold idle conditions for an extended period of time."
The life of components like piston rings and cylinder liners can be significantly reduced by gasoline washing away the lubricating oil, not to mention the extra fuel that is used while the engine runs rich. Driving your car is the fastest way to warm the engine up to 40 degrees so it switches back to a normal fuel to air ratio. Even though warm air generated by the radiator will flow into the cabin after a few minutes, idling does surprisingly little to warm the actual engine. The best thing to do is start the car, take a minute to knock the ice off your windows, and get going.
Of course, hopping into your car and gunning it straightaway will put unnecessary strain on your engine. It takes 5 to 15 minutes for your engine to warm up, so take it nice and easy for the first part of your drive.
Warming up your car before driving is a leftover practice from a time when carbureted engines dominated the roads. Carburetors mix gasoline and air to make vaporized fuel to run an engine, but they don't have sensors that tweak the amount of gasoline when it's cold out. As a result, you have to let older cars warm up before driving or they will stall out. But it's been about 30 years since carbureted engines were common in cars.
So unless you're rolling in a 1970s Chevelle-which we assume isn't your daily driver-bundle up, get into that cold car, and get it moving.

Warming up your engine to me means warming up the oil so that it flows more freely. That's why synthetic oil is the only way to go in most situations. It doesn't get too thick in cold conditions.

Carburated engiines don't change the fuel/air mixture? I'm supposed to take advice from someone who doesn't know what a choke is? (manual OR automatic).

Unfortunately, the author is right, drive gently until up to temp (does not necessarily apply to diesels at extreme cold).

This phenomenon hasn't yet been discovered in Montana, as thousands of people every day start their cars/trucks and leave them running to warm up. Failure rate of these burned up engines, hasn't manifested itself yet.

I start my truck every morning about 10 minutes before I take off. Ain't gonna change.

I wonder how many hundred of thousands of miles I've shortened the life of my vehicle engines by warming before going? I could, perhaps have gotten into the 3 hundred thousands. Of course every other darn thing on those cars was falling apart but at over 2 hundred thousand the motors themselves were all just fine! I seriously doubt warming the car makes any difference. Is this guy a member of green peace or some other conservation fruit factory?

2003 Dodge diesel - it gets ten minutes minimum when temperature is around zero. I really clatters when cold! I can't think that clattering does the engine any good.

I'm damn close with my 2002 Chevy
Warm it up about 10 minutes every morning before work.

Most reliable vehicle I've ever had.

1990 dodge truck has to warm up or it not gonna go anyplace when it it real cold.

I think most people warm their car for their own comfort and are not thinking about the engine.

How is it that for the better part of a century, conventional wisdom said to warm up your car in cold weather, and now all of a sudden we're to believe that we will leave a trail of blown pistons and rings in the wake of warming up the engine? Thanks for your opinion, but I'll continue to warm mine up. I've had several vehicles from a variety of manufacturers go well over 200,000 miles without blowing up. I'll take my chances.

The cost of turbos is enough to encourage me to do the warm up.
Those things need oil.

no warm up needed at my garage

50K BTU tube heater hangs above the two Tacoma daily drivers

5w30 syn too.........

I live where it can be very cold in the winter, and heated shelter for vehicles it not always available. I will not move a vehicle that is parked outside in minus 40 weather without first warming it up . Living in Chicago I doubt if the author truly understands what it's like to live in a area in North America where it's extremely cold for any length of time.

F

Majority of damage done to motors is during start up, not idling an extra 10 minutes.....

How long before the tires get round?

No doubt about it.

His theory depends on the assumption that just because the mixture is richer, excess unburned fuel will result, and the further assumption that all cars are the same in this respect. Nothing in the info provided attempts to make the first case, and I doubt it's worth his time to even try to make the second case.

Exactly...

Synthetic oil does a better job of keeping the cylinder walls wetted. Once the engine starts the oil flow keeps them wet almost instantly.

The author is an idiot. Our education system REALLY sucks.

Chicago community auto organizer s.o.b.

I don't typically warm up my vehicles too much, but luckily I have 2 miles of deserted gravel road to get to the highway so I can baby it down the road and it's warmed up before it gets to the highway.

In really cold weather, you can warm it up all you want, the wheel bearings, steering, etc are going to be stiff and cold no matter what. Once it gets to -40 F you better be babying everything cause stuff just flat breaks in those temps.

Another one for the 'stupid fucqing advice file' that I will give the consideration it deserves.

I live on a highway. If I start it and leave immediately, I have to accelerate to 60 in 1/4 mile. That's harder on an engine than idling.
Parts are engineered to fit together at operating temp. When cold, bearings, etc. are too tight or too loose. They'll be at specs when hot.

I ain't buyin it. It warms the oil, allowing it to flow better. Call me crazy but I put the trans in neutral too so the fluid warms and moves freely before I put it in gear.

Me too, truck has 300,000 miles in it. Must have hurt it bad.

With a high quality full synthetic, just wait for the oil pressure to come up and moderately drive off.

Doing that warms the whole drivetrain, rather than having a hot engine with cold transmission.

I let it run for a couple of min's then take off

If it is an automatic, leave it in gear with the brakes on and bring it up on the converter for a few seconds. That will bring the trans temp up much quicker. We do that on our race cars because we want the driveline temps brought up to the same point each round for consistency.

How many of youse guys have block heaters set on a timer?

Same here.....I do it to have heat

Mine are all diesels.

All our vehicles come with a block heater and timer. Starts about late April and ends late October in most years.

Mine kicks on about 1AM....grin

Good point!

Yup. Comes on about 3 hours before I need to leave. Usually the coolant and oil temp are between 60 and 100 degrees.

I let diesels warm up. I figure there is a lot more cold in a diesel than there is in a gas engine and diesels operate at higher pressures. My gas engines, I start it, clean the windows of frost or snow and drive off. But the first half mile is at 15-20 mph and the next 3 miles at 40 mph or less due to the roads and speed limits.

Dale

Sam,

Italian too? I did just that when I lived in Calgary. I would unplug, start up, clear the windows and head off to work, sometimes in 4x4 for the ten miles in. Frozen chit, not snow...

My vehicles live in the garage, so they don't freeze overnight.

My wife's splendid Miata sat in the garage, rarely driven whilst up there, a thousand a year for five years. I chose a different battle.

My commute is 20 minutes and 3/4 of it on the highway. If I slow down to 70mph I will get run over by everyone rushing to work.

You really are old...ain't ya....

3-6 weeks

Bias tires on the old two piece rims. On the 72 Chevy they never get round.

I dont have a timer on anything, but I really should do that.

Any given time I might have 6 or 7 outfits plugged in.

What would an average be? 1000 watts a piece?

The guy who wrote this clearly does not know what cold weather really is. When I lived in interior Alaska you couldn't even see safely out the windshield unless a diesel ran for 20 min with the high idle engaged, and it took me about 5 miles for the diesel to get warm enough to feel warm heat (not hot) coming out of the dash. Add to that the flinstone effect, and your own personal comfort in extreme cold temps, no way to operate a truck parked overnight in the cold without warming it up for good bit. Remote command starts were a blessing and block heaters, oil pan heaters, tranny pan heaters etc only insured that the truck WOULD start.

I jump in the car almost straight from the shower. If it's cold, the windshield gets frosted up, on both sides. I run out in my boxers, start the car, shower, dress, fly to work.

Same result in Saskatchewan

Hell, the hydraulics dont work until you let them warm a while.

What kind of chit oil is the OP using?

The engine analyst that is the basis for this should have more sense than that. His premise is that a cold engine is richer by the fueling curve until it warms up which is true, but he takes it too far into saying that it fuel washing the cylinders clean of the lubrication thus creating premature wear.

This would be only the case if there was an excessive amount of unburnt fuel which isn't the case otherwise the engines would be way too rich to idle properly. Plugs would foul, O2 sensors would go bad, or other things in the case of diesels way before the cylinders would prematurely wear.

The evidence that he is full of crap is exactly what people are reporting here. Hundreds of thousands of miles on engines that were routinely warmed up "improperly" according to the analyst.

Damn Sam, when did they start putting alarm clocks on dem block heaters? When my wife gets in her Jeep she is 100 yards down the driveway before the starter motor stops spinning.

This sounds like it was written by the same enviro nazis whom promote global warming. His science is just about as convincing.

Sure, a rig parked in the Phoenix sun during late July does not really need much warming before hitting the open road.

The one parked overnight at minus 20 degrees is a different story. All those dissimilar metals in the engine have different expansion coefficients.

The rods and caps fit the crank journals properly at operating temp. At minus 20, not so much. Main bearings, cam journals, valve tolerances, are all temp sensitive.

Thanks, but I will baby my engine for at least the time it takes for the windows to defrost. Fortunately, in my situation, the rig is pretty well warmed up by the time I get to the first paved road. The tach does not see two grand untill I am a mile from the house. Then I have another four mile at 35 mph.

The rig is warmed thoroughly by the time I hit I84 and 80 mph.

Well when it's -20 and you put your trans in "D" it's VERY hard on it because the fluid is heavy. Often times it will slam into gear if it's cold.

Sometimes it was a half a mile or so. Anyone who has driven in extreme cold knows the thump, and the frozen feel of the seat.

No Chit 1995 in Winnipeg we had a cold spell when at night it was -46 C inside my attached insulated garage. We had to plug in the block heaters in our vehicles to ensure they started . It was -65c with the windchill.

F

When it's sub zero, I am going to warm up that engine. Going to high RPMs to accelerate or keep up with those on the road with a cold engine is not a good thing.

That be me!

My Duramax has high idle where it actually engages the transmission and puts a load on the engine to warm up faster. It also holds the first couple of gears longer in the cold to promote warm up when driving. It feels like you are hurting the engine when you are driving like there is an egg under the pedal and the darn thing won't up shift but I suppose the engineers know what they are doing. It does warm the engine and transmission much faster when high idle is engaged in cold weather.

Exactly! "Stephen Ciatti, a mechanical engineer who specializes in combustion engines at the Argonne National Laboratory" is obviously tripping on the global warming/anti-oil KoolAid.

It is a shame that this bald-faced fraudulent scheme for forcing international taxation has infected even the once unassailable Argonne National Lab.

"When your engine is cold, the gasoline is less likely to evaporate and create the correct ratio of air and vaporized fuel for combustion." Sure. But when the fuel/air ratio is enriched to the point that it will ignite, that excess gasoline is darned well going to evaporate in the resulting 3000 degree burn of the charge.

"Even though warm air generated by the radiator will flow into the cabin after a few minutes, idling does surprisingly little to warm the actual engine." First of all, if you are feeling warm air from the radiator you are in the engine compartment not the cab! And you will get heat out of the heater long before the thermostat sends any warm water through the radiator. But more obviously, if you are getting warm air from the heater then the greater portion of the engine must be at least equally warm. Where does this frigging idiot think the warmth comes from?

"Carburetors... don't have sensors that tweak the amount of gasoline when it's cold out. As a result, you have to let older cars warm up before driving or they will stall out." Why is the bi-metallic strip that opens the choke as it absorbs heat from the engine not a "sensor that tweaks the amount of gasoline when it's cold"? And if it allows the cold engine to stall, it isn't adjusted properly!

If Stephen Ciatti is a mechanical engineer then I'm a wang dang doodle!

I live in North Pole Alaska...No Way i'm leaving the drive till my car warms about 15 minutes. My block heater starts the process about two hours before I go out to start the engine.

I start my truck early to defrost the windows. By the time they're clear, the engine is warmed up, and it's toasty inside.

Of course, it rarely gets much below the teens here, we've been at 14 but it's still early.
Dunno what the winter will be like, but I AM enjoying the heated seats that I didn't know it had when I got it.

EnviroNazis....

The same crowd that wants "clean air"....

and then pollute their lungs and everyone else's with all the dope they smoke constantly....

I always warm up my engines before taking off when I leave the driveway...

even in summer time... for 5 to 10 minutes...

Start the car, go back in the house, taking care of a few more things and then when I'm done, I'm off on my way...

Just a tad off topic, but I put RainX on my windshield, and the frost cleans off much faster and easier.

Agh, put that dumb bastid in ND for a month in January or February. We would see if he changes his tune.

Our old squad cars used to idle almost an entire shift. When it was storming out, I was lucky to get 10 miles on a night. I usually tried to park on some bare spot in a parking lot. The brakes would freeze up, and sometimes I needed a pull to get free.

The author is a fahqing moron.

I'm amazed by the amount of people that debate a remote start OR a block heater.





Dave

Early 80s, use to go up to No Dakota on business, with a 1980 VW Dasher Diesel Wagon...

winter time, ran a mix of 70% Kerosene and 30% Diesel in it... Up in North Dakota, I use to just lock it up and leave it running...

Engine ran straight for 3 or 4 days...

never seemed to bother the little buzzard...

winter time, changed the oil every 2 weeks...plenty of idling...

nice to always come out and get into a warm car...

The Bell Curve is whacked. The world is full of reets.

Does extensive idling cause irreparable damage to valve cover gaskets, necessitating more frequent changes?

On trick I saw a guy use on his JD chore tractor was he had about a three foot hydraulic hose made up. He plugged it in and engaged the hydraulic. It acted as a return and kept the oil flowing.

Cardboard on the front too was a good old trick.

This guy is not telling the whole story. IMO warmup is critical.

The rich mixture is required whether it uses a carburetor or injection because the cold parts condense the fuel vapors. Also any carbon buildup absorbs the fuel. It is called condensation and absorption.

Now combine the fact that, the more commonly used, aluminum pistons are cam ground/elliptical for controlled expansion and you have a new factor that WILL wash away oil from the cylinder and add to crankcase dilution, known as blowby. Higher compression as used in a diesel engine exerbates this issue. Higher than idle speeds will add to the blowby till the aluminum piston is expanded to its working shape. Failure to warm up a cam ground piston before loading the engine can also cause ring and land damage.

Many aluminum pistons will have piston slap till warmed up.

This stuff is mentioned all over the net and in most automotive texts. See link below for example of some of these issues.

https://books.google.com/books?id=i...piston%20shape%20when%20cold&f=false

Lots of reasons to warm up the engine.

Is that why block heaters need to have thermostats on them now so they can't be used if it's warmer than 0F? Well, can't be used before implementing wire cutters anyway.

Same here. It helps a lot. FWIW, use Rain-X on your bathroom mirrors, too. They won't fog up nearly as much during a hot shower.

After awhile, RainX goes from great to wtf did I put this schit on for? Gets cloudy. Take a can of coke and clean your windshield and out a fresh coat on. Like new all over again.

So this is where the idiots read how to drive cars, without defrosted windows or 2' of snow on their geo metros. Forest Gump had it right. Stupid is as Stupid do

Winnipeg. If the car starts, let it run until all the funny noises stop, or until you've brushed off the snow and scraped off the ice, whichever comes first. Make sure you exhale and take a deep breath before you get into the car otherwise your breath exhaust will condense on the windshield, making it impossible to see. Most Winnipeggers breathe through a snorkel device tucked into their coat, during the coldest four months. Oh, and don't forget to unplug the block heater before you drive away.

I ain't 'warming up' the truck for the sake of the truck; rather I'm warming the interior for the sake of my old azz!! I didn't get but damn nigh 500,000 outa my last one so I reckon I'll keep harming the engine by warming my azz!!

Warming up the engine doesn't "harm" it anymore than driving it would.

This same BS gets repeated every Winter.

The article is pure B.S.- warming up the engine harms it less than loading a cold engine before the parts expand.

Well, in ND cold like it's been this year, most people just leave the engine running all day. Warm it up, and keep it warm all day long. Easier on the engine that way, and helps warm up the environment a bit (or so we're hoping!).

BINGO!