Warming up you truck.

[mrtleavitt]

Hey guys I was wondering how long do you typically warm up your engine in the mornings?
Is warming your engine up strictly for driveability or is it bad for an engine to run for about 30 seconds and then take off?
I know you need to at least let the oil pressure build up at initial startup. I was just curious since the carb I run now doesn't have any choke on it so I'm usually in the truck with my foot on the throttle warming it up. Just curious what everyone has to say. Thanks

[Ranchero50]

Mine run long enough to run. 30 seconds minimun for the oil to get moving.

Jamie

[averagef250]

I give the Cummins stuff 1-5 minutes depending how cold it is, I wait until oil pressure drops below 100 PSI. Newer EFI stuff I just start and go, old carb engines long enough to where they idle smooth on thier own.

I think more than just letting them warm up it's important to get the engine up to temp before putting a full load on it. For instance, if I'm hauling a 15K lb trailer first thing in the morning I start my truck and let it idle while I'm loading and hooking everything.

[RTG_RACING]

No choke on the 68 so it warms up untill it stays runnning on its own.

[brandon.k]

No choke on mine either but it bust right off and idles fine. I do still let it run for about 5 min before i take off in it though.

[VernF110]

I need to let my engine warm up 5-7 minutes before take off other wise it will stall out.

Vern

[robroy]

Good day MrTleavitt,

When Tom Lucas showed me his racing Mustang at FE Specialties a while back, I noticed that he let it warm up a little before revving it. He said that he wanted to get "some heat in to it."

Perhaps that's due to its forged pistons needing a little time to expand slightly? I have no idea.

Have you seen this graph in "How To Rebuild BIG-BLOCK FORD ENGINES" by Steve Christ?



At first glance, this chart seems to indicate that it's best to keep your engine RPM as low as possible until it's all warmed up!

Robroy

[sargentrs]

No working choke. 5 mins before it idles on it's own.

[dustman_stx]

Good day MrTleavitt,

When Tom Lucas showed me his racing Mustang at FE Specialties a while back, I noticed that he let it warm up a little before revving it. He said that he wanted to get "some heat in to it."

Perhaps that's due to its forged pistons needing a little time to expand slightly? I have no idea.

Have you seen this graph in "How To Rebuild BIG-BLOCK FORD ENGINES" by Steve Christ?

[ Image ]

At first glance, this chart seems to indicate that it's best to keep your engine RPM as low as possible until it's all warmed up!

Robroy

That's interesting. I would like to know what kind of piston was being used for the test. I would think the results would be less dramatic with a forged piston versus a cast because of the fact that a cast piston expands more and is therefore slightly looser in the cylinder until warmed up. Any thoughts?

[cdeal28078]

My 460 doesn't have a choke hooked up either plus all of the hot air cross-overs are closed off. I crank it up and and back it out of the carport and back yard, Then it idles while I open the gate to the front driveway. By that time it idles fine on it's own and I take off. I drive real easy until the oil pressure drops down to 70 psi or so and the water temp gets up to at least 160. It runs abut 175-180 normally
I won't ever crank up and engine of any kind and just take off flogging it. Heck I don't even run my weed eater or chainsaw wide open at any time. I just try and take it easy on my stuff.
clint

[Dragon]

I tap my throttle and hit the key the engine lights in about 3 cylinders and then I ease back on high idle. I get the truck out of the enclosed place to reduce the house being vibrated with noise. After about 1 minute the engine starts to climb up so I tap the throttle and then ease forward around the drive by the time I reach the 50 mph street I am warm enough to punch it.

That graph is alright but cylinder wall temp is up way before water temp is up.

[1971ford]

I guess I'm destroying my 429 then in the racer.
I hop in, in the morning before school, crank it over, punch the gas to drop the idle and off i go. I go easy on it however, nothing above 2,750 rpms when it's cold.

[speed bump]

If its semi warm then I give it about 20-30 seconds to let the oil pressure come up.

When its -30 to -40°F then the truck gets a good 5-10 minutes of warm up before it gets moved.

[Redcap]

I let my old beast warm until she'll idle on her own with the choke in far enough to come off the fast idle cam.

[averagef250]

Every engine design is a little different in how they wear out. The older engines seamed to have far more quirks than the newer ones. The computer designed engines of today will more than likely break 250K miles running, but ready for replacement with just oil changes every 10K miles. The old engines had quirks like FE's getting sloppy valvetrain with high miles, inline sixes warping manifolds. I do a lot of cummins crap. Not sure how many engines I've done light and full overhauls on, but it's in the several dozen range now. The ones I know the history on that I knew were run hard (100% power as soon as the key was tapped) all have significantly more rod bearing wear. The worst ones by far are agricultural engines. Imagine if you will the genius farm hand starting a diesel tractor on a 0 degree winter day and instantly going full throttle to get the frozen hydraulics to move a little faster. There's no oil in those rod bearings, 15/40 doesn't flow much at 0 degrees. Yet the darn things still manage to last 5K hours if they aren't dusted or toppled over and left running on thier side while the worker takes his lunch break (yeah, it happened). The ag engines get it bad because most tractor engines only see very intermittent heavy loading. They're run high RPM, light load for most of thier lives which is the worst situation for engine wear. Light load means low cylinder temps, low cylinder temps means higher cylinder wear, carbon buildup, blowby and lower oil temp.