Any thoughts on this?

[Coyote Chris]

Has anyone ever seen what it looks like in the crankcase of an engine with a transparent oil pan?

Yes, warming up your car before driving in cold weather can damage the engine

Excessive idling does not do anything positive for your engine’s long-term health.

www.krem.com

 

[Coyote Chris]

 

[rc_heli_nut]

Didn't watch the videos, but it is better to just drive away gently, some modern engines are so efficient they never really warm up sitting idling, my Accord 1.5 turbo is like this. Modern oils, many with lighter viscosity, flow fine at lower temps.

Maybe, if it's a real cold morning, and I'm feeling extra guilty, I'll let it idle for 30 seconds before putting it in gear, I guess old habits die hard..

Plus, consider the fact you're getting zero MPG if the vehicle is not moving.

 

[ARKNT]

My thoughts are it can't hurt much other than burning fuel and no miles.
Likely isn't actually needed either in most cases.
Are you going to shut off the engine so it isn't idling at stoplights?

Arknt

 

[mikesim]

I read the article in the first post and I have a bit of a disagreement with the author. He states:

Gas-powered cars need oil to keep their engines lubricated. When you start a car, an oil pump circulates the oil in less than a minute. But if you let your car idle to warm up the cabin, the oil will start to slowly drain away from the engine's key components since the engine isn’t moving the car.

I don't understand why he states that if the car is not moving, engine oil is not circulating. If the engine is running, oil is circulating regardless of whether the vehicle is in motion. He either is laboring under misinformation or he has a poor way of articulating what he is trying to say.

I am in agreement however that a warm-up longer than ~30 is unneccesary.

Mike

 

[Coyote Chris]

My thoughts are it can't hurt much other than burning fuel and no miles.
Likely isn't actually needed either in most cases.
Are you going to shut off the engine so it isn't idling at stoplights?

Arknt

Some cars do! LOL!
The reasons the potentates give are silly... no splashing oil? LMAO

 

[Coyote Chris]

I read the article in the first post and I have a bit of a disagreement with the author. He states:

Gas-powered cars need oil to keep their engines lubricated. When you start a car, an oil pump circulates the oil in less than a minute. But if you let your car idle to warm up the cabin, the oil will start to slowly drain away from the engine's key components since the engine isn’t moving the car.

I don't understand why he states that if the car is not moving, engine oil is not circulating. If the engine is running, oil is circulating regardless of whether the vehicle is in motion. He either is laboring under misinformation or he has a poor way of articulating what he is trying to say.

I am in agreement however that a warm-up longer than ~30 is unneccesary.

Mike

Anyone who knows anything about modern 21st century engines knows you just have to be careful for a few minutes driving when its cold out, but you will not hurt the engine if you start it at minus 10 like it was this morning and let it idle for a few minutes. To prove his ridiculas statement, would take a team of SAE engineers and many tests to prove there is any harm done. With 0W-20 oil , synthetic, or whatever a car takes, oil will get sprayed around the inside of a rocker box or crank case tout suite when the engine starts, no sloshing needed.
Lots of good stories from the last century...you wouldnt dare apply power to an aircraft engine untill the oil temp was up a bit....It was straight weight oil and in some aircraft like the P38, you would pump fuel into the dry sump oil tanks before shutdown to thin it out for starting the next day.

 

[seagrass]

The statement at around 34 seconds saying “the oil drains away” while the engine is running is complete nonsense as with the engine running, the oil is being pumped around the engine.

Sounds like Verify needs to verify their statements before they publish them.

This is a bit of an embarrassment for them I would think.

Seagrass

 

[cliffh]

I found the videos fascinating, something I never thought I would ever get to see. I've always driven away gently with a cold engine as soon as the engine was running smoothly....which is right away with modern engines. 0W-20 synthetic oil is going to flow right away, but engine parts are cold and not at normal operating sizes yet....so easy driving until oil temp comes up.

 

[RedLdr1]

In the second video at 5:33 they admit they did not add the reccomended amount of oil. So now we have oil foaming? No s--- Sherlock. What a waste of time.

I don't generally don't keep vehicles for more than 3 - 5 years so this will be the second owners problem if there is one. This morning the temperature here is 9℉ with wind chill going well below zero. I'll be using my remote start features, and warming up my truck, if I need to go anywhere.

 

[junglejim]

Cars used to come with electric block heaters or coolant heaters around here but now most don’t. They also used 10W30 oil then and had carbureted engines. But modern engines have tighter tolerances and use thinner oil. So many of “us old guys” are trying to break old habits.

I live on US Hwy 2. Going eastward it goes uphill for over a mile but going west it is downhill. And traffic is moving fast. I don’t like to pull out eastbound and accelerate uphill to highway speed with a cold engine since the engine won’t up shift and runs at twice the RPMs that it normally would. I don’t mind driving away with a cold engine, but I don’t ask much power from it.

 

[RedLdr1]

Cars used to come with electric block heaters or coolant heaters around here but now most don’t.

Ford still offers the engine block heater as an option on most new vehicles. Living in Georgia it isn't something dealers order for their " in stock" cars.

 

[Phil Tarman]

The coldest weather I've ever been in was in Cut Bank, MT. I checked in to the Glacier Hotel too late to get a plug for my block heater. I was driving an '80 Malibu (which, incidentally, was one of the two worst cars I've ever had. At least it was a company car!). When I got up the next morning the steam radiator in the bedroom was on all the way and I had slept under a sheet, a blanket, and two quilts. I got up and looked out the window at the bank thermometer...-39F!

When I tried to start the car I was curious to see what would happen. The thermometer on the bank was still at -35. The car struggled, but turned over very slowly. If I remember correctly, this car was the first one I'd ever driven with fuel injection. I didn't pump the accelerator but the car finally started. For about 5-10 minutes it sounded like it had a crankcase full of rocks but then gradually smoothed out.

I had breakfast and drove out to the Phillips Petroleum office to call on the manager. I told him that -39 was the coldest weather I'd ever been in. He asked where I'd gotten the 39 and I told him that it came from the bank thermometer. He laughed and told me that it had been -42 at his house and that -39 was as low as the bank thermometer would go. I think the coldest place ever in MT was at Wisdom, the site of the Big Hole Battlefield, where it got down to -55.

All I know is that -39 or -45 was plenty cold enough for me.

 

[Coyote Chris]

The statement at around 34 seconds saying “the oil drains away” while the engine is running is complete nonsense as with the engine running, the oil is being pumped around the engine.

Sounds like Verify needs to verify their statements before they publish them.

This is a bit of an embarrassment for them I would think.

Seagrass

I found this story on FB under a local tv news affiliate's site. The most common emoji reaction was a laugh.
ref: experts
Some years ago now a known Ballistician (bullet ballistics expert) claimed there was no way that Billy Dixon could have shot an Indian off his horse at a range of 1,538 yards during the Second battle of Adobe walls. 1874. A 50 cal sharps simply wouldnt shoot that far.
He was pretty well laughed at by modern black powder shooters but He and some noted shooters were invited to the US Army ballistics range where they can track bullets with radar. They set up a 50-90 sharps in a bench rest and measured the barrel angle and let fly....the radar operator said, give me another shot with 14 degrees elevation, which would have been in range of a Sharps 74 rear site from the factory. Boom. 1500 yards. (I have shot a 45-90 at 1400 yards at a 4x8 steel target)

 

[WVRider]

Agree with those emoji's Chris

 

[mikesim]

I didn't look at the video before, but I just did. If the oil pan and rockers are clear, which it appears they are, that engine has some serious problems. What you are seeing is an emulsion, not pure engine oil. He says that air is being whipped into the oil casuing it to foam... that's not foam. Somehow or another I suspect that engine coolant is mixing with the oil causing the emulsion. The vid is confusing because the gents in the vid are not doing the narrating. I'm shocked that I did not notice the emulsion before.

Mike

 

[Hondafan]

I probably have one of the most cold blooded engines on the market.....Honda's 1.5 turbo. The first engines of this type had oil/fuel dilution problems due to the long warm up times in cold weather. Fuel was washing down past the rings into the crankcase. The 2022 CR-V added shutters to the radiator, and a water jacket around the exhaust manifold. They also made some software changes. It is still slow to warm up, but the fuel dilution problem is gone. My vehicle lives outside, and often has a thick layer of ice on the windshield. I need to let it idle for 5-10 minutes to clear that. It is just something I have to live with and I don't fret over it.

 

[Warren]

Interesting. I have a 2019 CR-V with the 1.5L turbo and have not noticed that it is cold blooded. I live in Missouri so perhaps is is not as cold here as where you live.

 

[Hondafan]

Warren, it is a problem in cold northern climates, where the temperatures routinely get down around 0F and lower.

 

[rc_heli_nut]

I probably have one of the most cold blooded engines on the market.....Honda's 1.5 turbo.

Same here, I have a 2018 Accord with this same engine. Although it is slow to warm up, somehow the Accords were not exhibiting the same fuel dilution problems the Civics and CRVs had. Mine never needed any recalls or software updates.

Honda designed this engine to be very low friction and fuel efficient, this is probably responsible for a lot of the slow warmup issue in my opinion. You're not burning extra fuel on a cold start to overcome friction as compared to something like a V8, leaving little BTUs left for the heater core. As my previous post stated, just drive it away gently, it'll warm up faster.

It's a great engine though, lots of power and really strong throttle response, and MPG is quite good even in the somewhat heavier Accord. Hard to believe a midsized car powered by an engine smaller than a Gold Wing's powerplant, but it is. Certainly quite a change of pace from most of the other 4-cylinder cars I've owned, where you step on the gas and nothing happens