Re: Warming up the Engine

[Brendan <bman@shentel.net>]

At 02:45 PM 12/16/97 -0800, you wrote:
>
>To beat a dead thread...
>
>What would the consensus be on warming up a turbo car w/ manual tranny?
>
>How does two minutes of warm up and then drive off under as close to zero 
>load as possible until water and oil temps start to get up to normal, sound 
>to the list?
> ----------

Driving off under zero load (were that actually possible) would defeat the
purpose of driving to warm up the car.  The reason for driving right away
is to put the car under load.  Keep the RPMs down, throttle perhaps 1/3,
shift and steer gently... it's pretty much common sense, drive right in
that range between "aggressive" and "granny" and you're generally ok.
During freezing weather I usually let my car idle 10-15 seconds and then
head out, keeping the RPM between 2k and 3k on my '87 5kq (NA) until the
temp gauge comes up.  It takes less than 5 minutes for the climate control
to have the interior temp on the upswing.  For turbo equipped cars keeping
boost down is a consideration, but keeping your RPM down and not getting on
the throttle too heavily starting off is all you can do for that.  And it's
better than idling.  This is another reason choosing the proper oil for
your vehicle and climate is of importance, particularly to turbo owners.

hth,
Brendan