Race spec motor in a daily driver

[davekmoore]

It is a nice idea to just warm it up every day but I think you would get sick of that real quick or not do it and end up damaging it

Reckon I can do the warm up and as far as I can tell I can only accelerate wear, not cause any damage if I ever miss it out. Even then, it looks like the worst I can do is cause the bores to glaze if I drive it off boost and not warmed up?

[Apu]

Who says your drive to work is less than 5 minutes?

4 minutes in a 1979 Mazda 626 auto. I'll go 25% slower in the SE.

You missed my point...find a route that will take you 15 minutes to drive to work!

[davekmoore]

You wont damage it any more than a stock engine, its just that if you wear it out in 100k its more expensive to replace.
As for warming it for 3 minutes... Come on. A day has one thousand three hundred and thirty seven more minutes left over after warming it up.
Dann

Just like many older cars I take in trade the stock '98 626 I'm presently driving has survived doing nothing but short trips for 174,000kms and the motor is still great and uses no oil and has never been opened despite not being warmed up before being dríven. It's effectively been serviced and oil changed every 5,500kms/6 months, which must have helped it.
BARMY will get less road use per year than the 626 and will be warmed up. In addition he'll do a lot of track/sprint days and get oil and filter changes more often than the 626 and with better oil. It'll be at least 5 years before he does another 100k, never mind 174k. Many parts that've gone on as part of the rebuild have been peripherals, most of which will survive the 5 years. If the internals do only need refreshing every 5 years (fingers crossed) they'll work out at under $1,200 per year.
Even if a complete internal refresh is needed every 2 years that's only $3,000 per year. This is still cheaper than having an M3 company car even after paying rego and insurance on the SE and covering other maintenance costs. We do have a larger family car for big trips so I don't need a large car. The SE is great to drive on the road with the only downside being that The Boss doesn't like the slightly harsher race engine mounts. So however good a new M3 SP25 Astina might be as a company car, the SE will be my daily driver when he's finished.
And I'll invest the 6 minutes per day.

[davekmoore]

You missed my point...find a route that will take you 15 minutes to drive to work!

True, I missed your point. However, NitroDann says driving it puts much more stress on the motor than letting it tick over.

[Crapweasel]

I go with warming the car up for two reasons - it clatters on startup (piston slap), and it's hesitant when cold on this tune - but once warmed up it's an absolute animal when I want it to be.

That's reason enough for me to wait for the drop in idle signalling that it's up to temp.

[davekmoore]

I go with warming the car up for two reasons - it clatters on startup (piston slap), and it's hesitant when cold on this tune - but once warmed up it's an absolute animal when I want it to be.
That's reason enough for me to wait for the drop in idle signalling that it's up to temp.

Thanks for the heads-up to wait for the drop in idle. For work-home-work it'll still only get minimal or no throttle. More than that will be partly for longer weekend drives and mostly for the track.
I'll be very upset with the tuner if the stand alone ECU allows any kind of hesitancy even if I have to drive it directly from fully cold.

[Okibi]

Speaking of warming up the engine, here's another perspective:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/09/27/2044311.htm

[sailaholic]

Prepare to be upset or spend lots of time at your tuner then Dave

Don't think idle drop equals warm, it just equals warmer. Oil temps and pressure tell the true story. 5 min warm up Plus 5 minute drive, you can't ride to work in 10 minutes? save fuel, get exercise and put the car on limited use insurance (saving more money) and extend engine life (saves money).

Stock engines are much more excepting of short drives. Forged pistons change shape more, the changes the pressure on your rings etc etc

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[sailaholic]

I disagree with some of the links drawn in that article. They don't address oil viscosity and bearings. Dirty plugs is also crap. I put a real dirty fouled set of plugs in the yaris it misfired for about 5 minutes of driving, pulled the plugs after a 20 minute trip, all clean again. No issues since.

I can see the excess fuel thing on old cars but modern fuel injection adjusts pretty darn well.

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[fastfreddygassit]

Buy a 50cc scooter.
Rego in the speed kills state of Victoria is around $110-120/year.
Cheap transport assuming you do not have to go too much faster than 80kph.
I keep mine on the front verandah, for shopping duties and quick trips to mates places......
and I love the sound of 2 strokes...

[ralt]

Hi.
You will not be popular with your neighbors if you sit with it idling for sometime.
This reminds me of a mate who bought a lc xui torana back in 1970. Somebody told him he must warm it up before driving so he would back it out of his driveway and stop across the road outside a neighbors house and sit listen to the radio waiting for the temp gauge needle to give him the ok to cause mayhem on the way to work. This warming up procedure only lasted 3 days. Sitting warming up the neighbor appeared in his pjs and got his garden hose adjusted the flow aimed it in the air and the water hit the roof of the torana- my mate couldn't get out of the car with the water and decided the neighbor must be upset and drove off. Never warmed the car up again just drove it became quite friendly with neighbor eventually.

[project.r.racing]

warm it up for 90 seconds, maybe 120 if cold. or buy a scooter as ffg posted.

[davekmoore]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I've heard enough to know I'll cause some, but not too much wear if I DD the car. However, I knew something was worrying me about my own logic here so I'd like to test this:

If I use my my car for my short commute the motor suffers a certain amount of wear due to not being warmed up. I can reduce this with a warm up and by sometimes using my bike.

Anyone else using the same car for a longer commute would still suffer the same wear while not warmed up and further wear on the warmed up part of the commute. Most longer distance commuters won't bother with a warm up or a bike.

So my car surely gets less wear overall?

Or am I still missing something?

[davekmoore]

You will not be popular with your neighbors if you sit with it idling for sometime.

This won't matter at work as it's a car yard.
The first 1km from home is slightly downhill and I reckon I can let it just about tick over with no throttle in 4th without upsetting any neighbours. Does this 90 seconds count as a warmup and as somewhere in between load and no-load Dann?

[greenMachine]

That's reason enough for me to wait for the drop in idle signalling that it's up to temp.

You think?

Ever sat watching the oil and water temps on cold startup? If you have, you will have noticed just how far the oil temperature lags water temperature - although a turbo will be quicker than an atmo, I suspect. And if you have an oil cooler with no thermostat it will take longer.

Water temperature has no impact on wear (other than perhaps the water pump?), oil temperature is key to wear, or lack of it.

Check your oil's operating range, then check your oil temperature gauge, and act accordingly.