I know that climb - HARSH! Get a tow from the cliff railway!!
My manual for a 98 ford says to pull away immediately as the engine warms up quicker and more fuel efficient -however this is a relatively modern engin and oil is 5W30 so probably a bit less viscous....
Ian Johnston wrote:
Chris Longhurst, the author of "Car Bibles: Additives", advocates the same:
"The current trend is the '90% of your engine wear happens at startup' advertising ploy. This fact is absolutely true, but as it happens, it's less to do with 'grinding engine parts' and more to do with combustion. When the combustion gases burn, they form acids which are highly corrosive when their vapours condense. These acids collect in the upper cylinder areas where their temperature is raised above their dew point. The acids condense and etch the cylinder walls and piston rings. In reality, this accounts for over 85% of engine wear, the other 15% being down to abrasion. So the adverts are nearly right - most of the engine wear does happen at startup, and it is because of a lack of oil, but it isn't because the oil isn't coating moving parts - it's because it's not transporting these acidic gases away. Having said that, if you start the engine and let it idle for 15 seconds or so before moving off, you can probably add another 100,000 miles to your engine's life without one bottle of additive. This warms the oil up a tad and makes sure it's in all the most vital areas before you start putting a strain on the engine. Most handbooks tell you not to let the engine warm up before driving off (they're referring to the acid corrosion mentioned above), but they mean don't let it reach working temperature. If, however, you insist on starting up and belting off down the road, think of this next time: it takes an average engine around 3 minutes of average driving for the exhaust manifold to reach
300°C. If you blast off and run around at full throttle, right from the word go, that process takes a little under a minute. Think about it - from outside air temperature to 300°C in a minute - what exactly is that doing to the metal in your manifold? Ask anyone who's ever owned an original Audi Quattro - they'll tell you exactly what happens."From "My personal views on additives"
15 seconds or so. Enough time to put your seatbelt on and look around.
What car is that? In my cars, it's very close to 2000 RPM for maximum torque.
John
It's a Honda VTEC engine. Maximum power is at 7400 rpm.
It would appear he doesn't. [...]
[...]Where does he get the 15 seconds from? Just 'cos he writes lots of stuff on a webpage doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about.
John
In the 60's and 70's, I remember distinctly that there was one received wisdom that in very cold weather it was best to wait for the engine to warm up first before driving off. That was warming up till the low engine coolant temperature light (not many cars had at the time) went out! A great emphasis was put on getting the engine warmed up quickly. Some people used radiator blinds, and other radiator muffs. Gadgets appeared on the market specifically to keep the engine warm overnight in winter. For example, there was one kerosene burner to place under the engine, and among other things a blanket for the bonnet. Then came another contrasting school of thought that the waiting was unscientific, illogical and was a total waste of time for the long term health of the engine. It was confusing. My opening statement referred to the emerging winning argument for the latter strand of philosophy. Details in the execution were not in the consideration.
Although if an engine of the 60's/70's saw the wrong side of 60k miles it was considered a bit of a miracle, perhaps all those extended idling periods were to blame fof their demise?
John
Mind you, the cars nowadays have engines of very different composite materials, component designs, and technologies. Even the petrol, motor oils are so much more engine friendly these days. The record I read was of one diesel engine having clocked up 800 000 miles (or was it km?)!
Every car driver's handbook I've ever read - some dating back to the '40s
- state *not* to warm up the engine before driving off.
Oh definitely.
I'm sure there's been more than a few million milers out there..
John
What - the police arrive in 15 minutes without even being called? Not in Oxford mate!
Tony
They don't even wake up until 4500rpm or so... little buzzy engines.
I've seen more than that in a petrol Jag. There's also a Volvo from the mid
60's that's hit 2 million miles.
Try a Toyaot vvt-i, 6800rpm peak torque.
They have an odd looking torque curve, for sure. Much like any other naturally aspirated 2 litre 16V engine up to about 3500 rpm then flat to about 5800 when the valve timing changes and it jumps. There's a graph of it (measured at the wheels, not the flywheel and plotted with the two litre 16V 138bhp engine from the Peugeot 307) at
I searched high and low for clues that this might be from a Volvo's 'undercover agent' but...Nope! WHAT a great story!
I can't help but think of 'Trigger's brush' whenever I read about him.
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