Cold start to spirited driving - how long do you wait?
 

Anonymous poll here, just curious how long everyone waits until things are warmed up before punching the throttle aggressively.

Once oil is at op temp

I wait until oil is up to operating temperature.

No oil temp gage in either of my cars. But I hold off until coolant temp gage needle has been at what I know to mean engine coolant is fully up to temperature. Depending upon the ambient temperature this can take anywhere from 10 minutes or more of driving.

Another way is to wait until one hears the coolant fans come on. For my cars they come on at 212F and turn off when the coolant temp drops to 205F.

Sincerely,

Macster.

I also wait until oil temp has risen. Before, I stay below 4,000rpm´s. I also do it so tires will warm up, because I had my scare when car was new!

Can anyone with engine knowledge tell us if we HAVE to do this?

i clicked engine temp but i meant oil temp not coolant temp.

Operating oil temp, always. That being said, I exercise my cars. On the way home from picking up my 997.1, once oil temps were up we had a few WOT jaunts up and down through the gears as I totally disagree with babying the engine until 2k miles. Every sports car I've owned, the dealers have all instructed me to ignore the manual and exercise the car right away (within the right parameters).

I don't believe its any coincidence every one has resulted in a strong engine. My 997.1 C2S pulled 319 rwhp bone stock, and even at a conservative 15% driveline loss thats around 375 crank hp. None of my cars have ever been oil eaters, either (in the 18k lifespan of my 997.1, non-oil-change additions were limited to maybe 3-4 quarts).

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I doubt it.

My assumptions (guesses) are as follows:

Getting to the highest operational oil temp is the key to doing it smartly.

Operational oil temp indicates the big internal parts (especially the crankshaft) have expanded to specification so the bearing clearances are correct.

Water temp indicates cylinders, heads and pistons are up to temp.

one of the most important things you can do to extend engine life is to go easy on revs and load until the oil is warm.

On my air cooled car, I wait for at least 180+ oil temps.

What is the oil operating temperature. 175 degrees?

The numbers in the first 3 entries (oil < 200F) of the poll are revealing. To note that that kind of engine abuse is made by members of this forum is worse. :(

200F.

That is what I needed to know. Must wait till 200 or greater before stepping on it hard. Do you think shifting above 4000 rpms is actually protective for the engine preventing high oil consumption? In the 993 series lugging and not revving the engine above 4000 rpm increases the risk of carbon buildup and CEL problems with the OBD2 cars.

I always wait until 200+ and followed the break-in period guidelines. However, my 2009 DFI engine does consume oil. On the other hand, my wife's S6 with V10 DFI doesn't any consume any oil at all while her prior car A6 V8 drank it. I think it's totally random.

Please note that I am referring to 200F oil temp, not coolant temp.

Once the oil is hot, no harm in redlining it. In fact, periodic redline visits and keeping the engine above 2kRPM is good practice. Yes, modern engines have good low end torque and they can run at low RPMS, but boxers always liked higher regimes. Not only for moving parts but to evaporate gas/water dissolved in the oil.