So I've got to ask. It being this cold, how long do you guys leave your engine to heat up before you start driving it in the morning?

I've heard that you should leave older cars to heat up for 5 min first. What about this car?
I usually wait for the coolant to warm up to 100 degrees, and then baby-drive it till around 140. I never drive hard until then...

Suggestions...

 

This is precisely what I do ... plus, the heater doesn't blow warm air until the coolant is around 100 degrees, so I don't like driving before that point ... I really need a new coat .

 

here lately its been getting 25-30 in the morning..for tennessee thats freakin' cold in Dec....so I always let mine warm up to around 160 to let all the ice melt from the car's windsheild

 

when it was kind cold i would let it warm till about 80 then drive easy until 140 or more.

now it is cold i wait till 100 and easy till 140 or so like you.

 

i like mine warm up until the idle settles down.... usually a minute or so. read a couple years back that it's no longer necessary to allow your cars 10-15 minute warmup times in the mornings. and i'm in MN where it was -14 wind chill this morning.

of course, i don't step on it until the coolant warms up, or at least starts reading on the gauges.

 

Good, I was crossing my fingers & hoping no one thought I was weird.

I just dont want people thinking that I'm that "slow driver" holding up traffic early in the morning. So I might let my car warm up a little more before driving it.

 

I wait for 100 also.

One theorey we had with the old Quad 4s was that is was very bad to start right up and push the engine hard when its cold - that would lead to head gasket problems. Not sure if it was true or not, but I figured it was a good prcatice with this engine too.

 

css9450 is right if you push it to hard right away its bad. My friend had a 96 Buick LaSabre and drove it hard all the time no matter how cold or warm it was. He blew his head gasket bad.

 

i turn it on when i get out of the shower... get dressed and grab lunch while it's warmin up, normally about 10 minutes or so... plus, the downpipe and exhaust sound like **** when it's cold..

 

haha nope

same thing I do

cold parts wear down faster

 

One thing that happens to my car when it's cold is that it stalls on the first startup. When it's real cold like single digits and below. I think I may need to invest in a block heater if they make one for the SS/SC...

 

This is an old debate.....I've seen arguements saying warming the car up at idle is best, and I've seen ones that state allowing a car to run at idle at low temps is bad, getting it rolling heats it up faster and brings it up to operating temps. I've owned several cars, never having a problem using either method.

 

I go out start mine, come in brush me teeth, throw gel in my hair and then out the door. So 5 minutes or so, then as others, baby it for awhile and till it warms up sufficiently.

 

Yeah I use the wait to 100 method, then start drving really slow until 130-140 or so then I drive normally....but then again, even normal driving for me is slow im a grandma

 

once i start driving, it gets up to normal temps by the time i'm off my street...

 

I used to wait for 100 degrees, but, now I wait for the tach to drop below 1000. Seems to do pretty well. I never drive it hard though under 140.

 

well, it doesn't get cold here in florida, but back in philadelphia, i used to let my old BMW warm up for a while before i'd hit the road, and when i lived in western PA, i'd give my ford like a half hour. but that was mostly to melt ice, not to warm the car.

 

WEll one thing i did to heat up the car faster is remove the heat shield on the manifold, the car warms up much quicker, but i really dont need it anyway since my car is left in a heated garage

 

i wouldn't do that unless you've got a coated header. that heat shield is there for a reason. trust me, i could show you what a missing one did to my poor BMW.

 

i usually wait for 50 degrees celcius, i dunno what that is in farenheit

 

What do you mean, parts above the manifold getting too hot?

 

yeah, on the E21, the heat actually messes up the paint on the frame rail. it also cooks on the wiring as well. just be careful, there are not too many parts on a car that are useless.

 

That really has no effect on engine coolant temperature.

 

acutally it did make quite a bit of difference, the engine heats up substaintially faster.

There are several plastic items directly above the manifold, notably an acrylic tube that houses my engine bay lighting, which is DIRECTLY above the manifold, I haven't seen any signs of damage to anything yet, and the shield has been gone for about a month now

 

i'm not saying that you will have issues, just that you should watch for them, is all.