Warming up the engine...serious????

I thought at least part of the reason for "warming up " the oil was to get it to thin enough to flow properly. I think it depends if you are using Synthetic or non-synthetic oil as well. I did the following test 20 + years ago,** put the same weight oil , sys and non-syn in the freezer for 30 min, then open and pour both, syn pours like water, non-syn pours like molassis. I was sold on syn after that. In warm climates it may not matter but here in Colorado, I don't want molassis in my crankcase.

 

weren't the prior series Porsches (996,993 ect.) considered "oil cooled"? they didn't have water radiators.

 

I just read through this thread and can't resist commenting. HERE'S WHY NOT TO REV THE ENGINE HIGH OR RUN HIGH LOAD UNTIL THE OIL IS WARM.
The oil pressure has nothing to do with carrying the combustion and inertial loads in the main bearings. The oil pressure is only to replace the oil in the bearings after most of it has been "squeezed" out of the bearings during the load cycle and the remaining oil in the bearing is really hot from the shearing of the thin film. When the bearing unloads, the oil pressure replenishes the oil in the bearing, cooling and thickening the oil that remained, in preparation for another load cycle. When the engine is run at high RPM, there is less time to replenish the oil between load cycles. Even if the throttle load on the engine is low, inertial loads on the bearing are high at high revolutions. If the oil is still cold when this occurs, then it is thicker and is even more difficult to push into the bearing during the unloaded part of the cycle. The result can be bearing oil starvation and consequently metal-to-metal contact. So the combination of high RPM (short oil replenishment time) and cold oil (low flow rate due to high viscosity) can result in bearing wear or catastrophic failure. BE PATIENT!!!!!!
Tom Kizer

 

I cant say exactly. I understand what your saying, but I dont understand it myself. But now that I am thinking about it, oil would have to be better at carrying away heat, or it wouldnt take so long to heat it up. Every car I have ever owned heated up the cooling system much faster than the oil. I have had cars started up cold, that would open the thermostat and cycle the cooling fans long before the oil gets very hot. Yet the oil is in direct contact with the very parts that are generating heat. The rings, the cylinder walls, the bottom of the piston, they are all at much greater temps than what the coolant is in contact with.

The 308 is one of the few cars I have owned in my life that have an oil temp guage. It takes a long ways driving on a warm day to see that guage get near 200 degrees, even on a 100 degree day. Last week I kept an eye on it, and watched to see how long it would take, or how far away I could drive before either guage got to the 140 line. It was about 80 degrees outside. It took me about 2 miles to see 140 on the coolant, full coolant heat by 4 miles, but about 10 miles before I seen the oil move past the 140 line.

On engines I have taken apart, many racing or sports car engines were incredibly clean inside with very minimal scorching under the pistons or around the rings, some times no scorching at all. If we assume these engines seen at least some time at full power, they should have been generating thier maximum amount of heat. Many of those motors ran Valvoline or Castrol 20W50, which various articles point out would begin to burn at around 400 degrees. Because those engines remained clean, it would be assumed that temperture was never reached, so the oil was carying away a vast amount of heat. Even aircooled twin cam racing motorcycles remain very clean inside, and especially in the ring areas, even running dumb old dino oil, so obviously they are running fairly cool and the oil is taking away the heat.

 

Some of the OPINIONS on this thread downright scare me. I will reserve comment on this subject and some of the people responding, however I will say that if a person not familiar with the mechanics of cars is reading this and truly looking for advice dont take it from anyone claiming not to warm up your engine.