Riding away with a cold engine

[Constant Mesh]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8010303541.html

"On modern, fuel-injected cars -- basically anything made in the past 20 years -- you're not helping the car at all by warming it up for five or 10 minutes."

"If it's bitterly cold, like 10 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, you can let it warm up for a minute or two to allow the oil to thin out a bit and circulate completely. But other than that, if it runs, driving it gently is the best way to warm it up."

This is a good strategy for a fuel injected bike as well.

 

[C&C]

Concur, I generally start up the bike, put in my ear protection, put on my helmet and gloves, and ride away. Usually the time it takes to perform these functions is just enough time to let the engine come off of its fast idle (and generally allows the engine water temp to get to the first bar; gen I bike). From there I will take it easy on the bike (engine) until I have two bars showing on the water temp.

 

[stellarsteve]

Concur, I generally start up the bike, put in my ear protection, put on my helmet and gloves, and ride away. Usually the time it takes to perform these functions is just enough time to let the engine come off of its fast idle (and generally allows the engine water temp to get to the first bar; gen I bike). From there I will take it easy on the bike (engine) until I have two bars showing on the water temp.

That is exactly what I do. By the time I have the jacket, helmet and gloves it just comes off fast idle and away I go. Course my route is about 6 blocks of 30mph then 2 miles of 45 mph, 2 miles of 55 mph then slab. Won't tell you how fast I go then. Hehehehe.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

That's true.

If you live in a neighborhood, have a long driveway, or must ride around town to get to a highway -- you're golden. But, if you live at the entrance to a freeway on-ramp -- well, it might be more prudent to ride along the frontage road for awhile before working and revving?

The FJR does have a heat-exchanger to warm the oil (via coolant thermostat) so when the temp gauge goes up you're on your way to warm oil and 'operating' temps.

 

[markjenn]

I go even further.

Unless it's really cold, even the time spent getting to that 1st bar on the temp gauge is a period when you're running an a rich mixture, idling the engine, and wasting gas for no beneift. You're better off getting completely dressed, firing the bike up, and riding immediately (slowly). The whole idea is to minmize the time spent on fast idle running that rich mixture that is diluting your oil with gas, combustion byproducts, and washing down your cylinder walls with excess fuel. The engine warms faster/better being ridden gently, not idling.

But I completely agree that you don't want to hammer it until you reach full temperature. Having said this, a bike like the FJR can hit freeway speeds never pulling more than 15% or so of full power, so I don't think there is any issue whatsoever with hitting a freeway ramp right after startup, provided you don't need to push it to speed aggressively.

- Mark

 

[murf]

Here's the statement right out of the owner's manual about engine warm up.

Caution:

For maximum engine life, always warm the engine up before starting off. Never accelerate hard when the engine is cold!

Note:

The engine is warm when it quickly responds to the throttle.

 

[escapefjrtist]

All good points. It also depends on what folks are calling a cold start. Beginning in warmer parts of the US for example is a little different than some of the colder climates where the oil is more viscous at start-up.

I start my GenII, pull on the gloves and if it's colder than 40 or so wait for one bar. By that time, it has idled down and then ride with conservative revs until at full temp. My cages say to idle for a minute if under freezing and then drive slowly until warm.

--G

 

[USMC CWO]

I would have to disagree with most of you on this topic. When an engine warms, the metal of the components expands as it heats. This expansion takes most of the slop out and keeps everything working closer to designed parameters. One extreme example of this is a diesel engine. That is why you see so many truckers running radiator covers in the winter. Now, it is probably O.K. to run the FJR casually with a cold engine but what do you consider a cold engine? I let my bike warm to three-bars before ever putting it in gear. However, once I hit the highway on a cold day (yesterday it was 16 degrees when I rode to work) my temp gage drops to one-bar. I still consider this to be a warm engine.

 

[S76]

I'm with the majority on bike warm up, but I let the truck warm up alot on very cold days and not because it's a diesel.

I just hate sitting on a cold seat!

 

[FJRSTAR]

I'm with the majority on bike warm up, but I let the truck warm up alot on very cold days and not because it's a diesel.
I just hate sitting on a cold seat!

One bar warm up is all I ever do most of the time. Sometimes not even that.

 

[ponyfool]

I gear up, put on the helmet, and just before mounting the bike, I start it. Once the Zumo is playing music, and I am in the XM radio screen, I hop on and ride. Typically about a minute warm up total. If it's really cold, I start it before I put the Zumo on the bike.

 

[jestal]

Start it and ride it. Any time spent waiting for the engine to warm up is basically a waste of time and fuel. Especially in the ambient temperature ranges that motorcycles are used/started. Certainly take it easy for the first few minutes. I wouldn't advocate full throttle redline upshifts immediately after starting up but there is simply no need to sit and idle to warm the engine up.

While I wouldn't recommend hammering any cold engine immediately after starting up I have seen some very nasty things done to cold automotive engines during validation testing and nothing bad happens. Like repeated full throttle 0 to 70 MPH accels about 30 seconds after startup at -40. Immediate 5000/6000 neutral operation immediately after starting to check cold oil presure. The engines just don't care. About the only concern with cold starting on engines is ultra high oil pressure possibly blowing the filter off at high RPM when the oil is cold but this is somewhat self correcting as the oil pump will cavitate with cold/more viscous oil and keep the pressure in check. Otherwise, the engine design/pressure bypass/validation should take care of it.

I almost always suit up, roll the bike out, hop on, click it into first, hit the starter with the clutch held in (start in gear) and ride off seconds after starting. This avoids the clunck into gear with the sticky/cold clutch. Normal cold fast idle is plenty to get out of the subdivision without giving it any throttle. Keep the RPM below 4000/5000 for a mile or two and quite worrying about it.

Those grill covers you see on diesels are always a question to me. If the engine thermostat is operating the covers should have no effect on engine temperature in cold weather. Since diesels reject much less heat to the coolant keeping them warm enough to keep the vehicle cabin heated is sometimes difficult especially when idling in very cold weather. Since some of the very heavy duty cooling systems on diesels (for trailer towing in the summer) bypass the thermostat to some extent with the cabin heater water flow there is a case for the grill covers on really heavy duty diesels but I think most people do it because they copy the look on class 8 diesel trucks.

 

[Jagermeister]

I used to be anal about heating up the engine; now I just ride,

Just get the oil flowing. Turn the key, put on the helmet & gloves; RIDE!

 

[Rondo777]

I'm another that just starts it and goes. The coldest temps its ever sceen here in AZ are the upper 40's. I just keep it below 3k rpm until the first bar on the temp gage pops up.

 

[painman]

As long as you don't put a real load on any engine cold, carburated or injected your good to go. Just baby the engine until the heat bars are in the normal range. As far as the vent louvers on diesels, those are only in need in "extreme" cold climates as large diesels are more difficult to get to and maintain the proper temps when below freezing. PM. <><

 

[Lake Powell]

I'm going to run against the grain on this one. I let my bike get fairly close to normal temperature before I run anywhere near the normal load and shift points. I guess it's my background in aviation and engineering that gives me a guilty conscience from doing so.

That being said, the aircraft I fly now has very specific limitations for temperature applications, especially when cold soaked.

If the FJR was your livelyhood (which I doubt), what's a couple of minutes and some gas going to cost to let it warm up gradually?

 

[markjenn]

I let my bike warm to three-bars before ever putting it in gear....

I think there is a broad range of reasonable warm-up strategies, but this is way outside that range in my book. Letting an engine sit on fast idle until you get to three bars is just flat-out hard on the engine and puts a tremendous load of crud in your oil on every startup. You won't find much support for this sort of strategy with engine experts these days. Not to mention the wasted gas.

As to how much load you can put on the engine during warmup, you want to take it easy, but few people realize how little power it takes to cruise down the freeway at 70 mph - it's something like 10-15 hp from a 125 hp engine. I've done jetting setup on carb'ed engine before where I instrumented the throttle position and you would flat out be amazed how little throttle it takes on a powerful bike like the FJR to go REALLY fast. In normal traffic, most of us troll around with the throttle twisted less than 10% of max and an FJR will run 90 mph at about 25% throttle. So unless you're really accelerating, you're generally not pushing your engine at all.

Just my $0.02 and I certainly know some would disagree.

- Mark

 

[SPORT]

I'm going to run against the grain on this one. I let my bike get fairly close to normal temperature before I run anywhere near the normal load and shift points. I guess it's my background in aviation and engineering that gives me a guilty conscience from doing so.
That being said, the aircraft I fly now has very specific limitations for temperature applications, especially when cold soaked.

If the FJR was your livelyhood (which I doubt), what's a couple of minutes and some gas going to cost to let it warm up gradually?

I concur as I too have bee an A&P. But with that said, These newer engines, though have less tolerance (between cylinder and piston) than your old grand-dads Ford, are more tolerant to contraction/expansion.

However, I still allow my vehicles to warm before riding/driving off...especially with cold temps and thick oil!

In the end...to each their own.

 

[murf]

Jestal:

I pretty much agree with you on the bike, but what about those of us who ride the bike in ambient temps that aren't the norm for most riders? The coldest temps I have started and ridden my 07 FJR is 17 degrees, F. Cranked over four or five times before it fired. By the time I got my helmet and gloves on, bike had idled perhaps for two minutes, with no indication on the temp gage. Hopped on it and rode off at a leisurely pace for a couple of miles.

I've been up at "Frostbite Falls" MN many a time when the major car and battery manufacturer's were doing cold weather testing on their products with the temps in the -35 to 40 below range. Just about all of them stayed at the Holiday Inn. Didn't recall any of them starting up their vehicles at the motel at those temps and driving away within 30 secs. They couldn't keep the windows from frosting up and couldn't see to drive. Saw a few plastic steering wheels and seat covers crack at those temps.

With today's modern engines and tight clearances, at temps of -35 to 40 below, how long would you say it takes the oil to reach the camshaft galleries? I would think it would be prudent to allow the engine to idle at least a minute or so to assure oil is circulating completely through the engine before driving off in those kinds of temps.