How do you warm your Tiv up?
Discussion
my chim is off the road at the minute and once every two or three weeks i start it up and run it until the fans kick in. once warm i rev it gently and i drive back and forward on the drive to exercise the clutch, brakes,etc...
sounds from this thread that this is doing more harm than good...can't see it myself.
Whole heartedly agree with gently driving until the engine is warm...jus't don't see the huge harm in allowing your engine to warm through while idling.
sounds from this thread that this is doing more harm than good...can't see it myself.
Whole heartedly agree with gently driving until the engine is warm...jus't don't see the huge harm in allowing your engine to warm through while idling.
The racecar bible says "keep the revs low until the oil viscosity is balanced at operating temperature"
In my books, that means - dont rev like a plonker until shes hot to touch - its wear and tear - you get normal levels and you get excessive levels... the excessive ones build up to a premature engine failure.
When I used to get home from work via train, into the train station car-park, EVERYONE was off reving like mad within a few mins... meanwhile, just got my coat off, the car is warming up, I've relaxed into my seat, got the radio on, lit a cigarette, opened the window a little... got on the phone to the missis "honey, I'll be there in 10".... by the time I'me ready to go, the roads are clear, and my journey is effortless in 3rd/4th all the way...
why rush??? when you can stroll....
In my books, that means - dont rev like a plonker until shes hot to touch - its wear and tear - you get normal levels and you get excessive levels... the excessive ones build up to a premature engine failure.
When I used to get home from work via train, into the train station car-park, EVERYONE was off reving like mad within a few mins... meanwhile, just got my coat off, the car is warming up, I've relaxed into my seat, got the radio on, lit a cigarette, opened the window a little... got on the phone to the missis "honey, I'll be there in 10".... by the time I'me ready to go, the roads are clear, and my journey is effortless in 3rd/4th all the way...
why rush??? when you can stroll....
GI Jnr said:
I've used the same technique on all of my cars:
Idle for a minute or two for the liquids to start circulating, then easy driving until up to temp.
I try not to labour the engine too much at this stage so, I do tend to use all of the first 3k RPM.
Fingers crossed, it's left me with no problems at all with any of the cars.
Tuan
Me too, always served me well
I start mine and keep it below 3k until the OIL is warmed up, you can tell that by the drop in oil pressure at tick over. I figure that’s a much better indication of engine temp than the water temp gauge (the name kinda gives it away). I thought that gauge was just there to tell you if you had a water leak!
Takes about 10-15 mins of driving and is the only time the local chavs get a chance to beat me. After thet they are back on the menu
)
Takes about 10-15 mins of driving and is the only time the local chavs get a chance to beat me. After thet they are back on the menu
)The issue with warming up the engine at constant revs (i.e. idling) is that it causes the bores to glaze. I'm told this is 'a bad thing'.
A better method is to start the car and gently blip the throttle to vary the revs - slowly increasing the revs as the temperature increases. This is the way that we warm up the race cars, when it would be far easier just to let them idle.
With a road car you can simply to drive it sympathetically from cold - keep the revs down but constantly vary them.
The pub car parks full of TVRCC owners leaving their monthly meetings who religiously start their cars and let them idle for 10 minutes before driving off are actually shortening the life of their engines, not prolonging them. It always distresses me to see it.
A better method is to start the car and gently blip the throttle to vary the revs - slowly increasing the revs as the temperature increases. This is the way that we warm up the race cars, when it would be far easier just to let them idle.
With a road car you can simply to drive it sympathetically from cold - keep the revs down but constantly vary them.
The pub car parks full of TVRCC owners leaving their monthly meetings who religiously start their cars and let them idle for 10 minutes before driving off are actually shortening the life of their engines, not prolonging them. It always distresses me to see it.
griff2be said:
The pub car parks full of TVRCC owners leaving their monthly meetings who religiously start their cars and let them idle for 10 minutes before driving off are actually shortening the life of their engines, not prolonging them. It always distresses me to see it.
Although is that better or worse than the other approach I've seen, where they get in thrap them away amidst tyre squeels on a cold engine…
griff2be said:
The pub car parks full of TVRCC owners leaving their monthly meetings who religiously start their cars and let them idle for 10 minutes before driving off are actually shortening the life of their engines, not prolonging them. It always distresses me to see it.
I'm glad I found out.
Hoorah for PH. 
>> Edited by groucho on Tuesday 1st March 18:08
Lots of sense spoken above. Idling for a long time is bad - as with griff2be we warm race engines by light revving. Oil temperature is the most critical thing, but it takes much longer to get the oil up to 60/70 than the water.
I'm not sure if this is correct, but I also understand that lengthy idling from cold doesn't do the cataclysmic converters much good, either - though I appreciate that they tend to go 'missing' from many TVRs just after they leave the factory...
I'm not sure if this is correct, but I also understand that lengthy idling from cold doesn't do the cataclysmic converters much good, either - though I appreciate that they tend to go 'missing' from many TVRs just after they leave the factory...
Hope I'm allowed to post in here; I'm an aspiring Trevor owner, so I'm not a total heretic!
Obviously the objective is to get the engine to optimim operating temperature as quickly as possible whilst minimising wear; the problem with allowing an engine to idle is that it takes significantly longer to warm up because there is no load on the engine; from my experience this is much less of a problem with petrol engines, some modern diesels will, in cold weather take an age to warm up, I expect without placing load on the engine it would probably not warm up with 1 hour, ridiculous as it sounds. The other associated problem is that the ECU maintains the 'cold start' procedure for longer, over-fueling and therefore, to some extent bore wash will occur; this is when the oil is washed off the bores by the excess fuel; whether this is a significantly damaging process in modern engines is open to debate, but excess fuel is not a good thing.
I understand the problem with having load on an engine at low revs (i.e. labouring) is that it creates much higher loading on the bearings; this effect is enhanced because the metal components in the engine have not expanded, because there is no heat. As such there is a marginally larger gap between bearings etc, and as such wear is likely to be embellished.
This makes quite an interesting read: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=4&t=28589
HTH
Obviously the objective is to get the engine to optimim operating temperature as quickly as possible whilst minimising wear; the problem with allowing an engine to idle is that it takes significantly longer to warm up because there is no load on the engine; from my experience this is much less of a problem with petrol engines, some modern diesels will, in cold weather take an age to warm up, I expect without placing load on the engine it would probably not warm up with 1 hour, ridiculous as it sounds. The other associated problem is that the ECU maintains the 'cold start' procedure for longer, over-fueling and therefore, to some extent bore wash will occur; this is when the oil is washed off the bores by the excess fuel; whether this is a significantly damaging process in modern engines is open to debate, but excess fuel is not a good thing.
I understand the problem with having load on an engine at low revs (i.e. labouring) is that it creates much higher loading on the bearings; this effect is enhanced because the metal components in the engine have not expanded, because there is no heat. As such there is a marginally larger gap between bearings etc, and as such wear is likely to be embellished.
This makes quite an interesting read: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=4&t=28589
HTH
My process is fire up the engine, and pretty much get going asap. I rarely (1 that I recall) let it idle and in fact was warned not to warm it up at idle. As for what I do next I keep revs below 2500 without labouring engine and I drive on oil temperature until its 60c. Then I increase revs until engine hits 70c oil, then its time to enjoy the engine!
AJP V8 starting, my current routine is
1) Start engine, take revs smoothly to 1500 rpm immediately (in theory this reduces cam wear IMHO)
2) Hold 1500 rpm for 30 seconds, ensuring pressure goes to its usual 60-65 and stays there, as little variation in rpm as possible to reduce bore-wash
3) Ease off throttle, drive off, keeping rpm below 3.5k until engine thoroughly warm.
But note this is what I do, not what's necessarily right, see previous threads, e.g. "JOHN ravenscroft’S TIPS ON MECHANICAL SYMPATHY AND HIS ENGINES!
RUNNING IN
Most importantly, drive fairly normally. Being too gentle with an engine when running in can be as bad as being too rough.
Although it is important to avoid full throttle or over 4,000 rpm during the first 1,000 miles, occasional bursts (c.5 seconds) of 75% throttle up to 4,000 rpm, will help to bed the piston rings in.
FROM COLD
When starting, please be careful not to let it rev straight up so please make sure that you do not give it anything more than a tiny bit of throttle while cranking it over and then lift off as soon as it catches.
Then try to avoid more than 3,000 rpm until the oil (not water) temperature has exceeded 40°C, 4,000 rpm until 60°C and 7,000 rpm until 80°C. If it climbs above 110°C, please keep the revs below 5,000 rpm until the oil temperature returns to normal. "
See [url]www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=26549&f=5&h=0&hw=idle+start+ravenscroft[/url] for previous
1) Start engine, take revs smoothly to 1500 rpm immediately (in theory this reduces cam wear IMHO)
2) Hold 1500 rpm for 30 seconds, ensuring pressure goes to its usual 60-65 and stays there, as little variation in rpm as possible to reduce bore-wash
3) Ease off throttle, drive off, keeping rpm below 3.5k until engine thoroughly warm.
But note this is what I do, not what's necessarily right, see previous threads, e.g. "JOHN ravenscroft’S TIPS ON MECHANICAL SYMPATHY AND HIS ENGINES!
RUNNING IN
Most importantly, drive fairly normally. Being too gentle with an engine when running in can be as bad as being too rough.
Although it is important to avoid full throttle or over 4,000 rpm during the first 1,000 miles, occasional bursts (c.5 seconds) of 75% throttle up to 4,000 rpm, will help to bed the piston rings in.
FROM COLD
When starting, please be careful not to let it rev straight up so please make sure that you do not give it anything more than a tiny bit of throttle while cranking it over and then lift off as soon as it catches.
Then try to avoid more than 3,000 rpm until the oil (not water) temperature has exceeded 40°C, 4,000 rpm until 60°C and 7,000 rpm until 80°C. If it climbs above 110°C, please keep the revs below 5,000 rpm until the oil temperature returns to normal. "
See [url]www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=26549&f=5&h=0&hw=idle+start+ravenscroft[/url] for previous
richb said:
Personally I drive off and until it's warmed through I keep somewhat below 3k revs which seems about right on the 5ltr.
OK... so there's this guy opposite me who is a bit of a plonker who has a Reliant Scimitar V6 that he appeared to have superficially restored last year but which never moves off his drive now. And... every month or so he comes out and literally rev's the nuts off it for 15 minutes and goes back indoors againI don't much like the Scimitar but it pains me to listen to him killing the engine!
You must live at my house then!! i have exactly the same guy live opposite me, only difference is i like the scim just not sat on the drive hitting 5k rpm from cold.
FHCNICK said:How weird! There must have been an article in the Scimitar Club Monthly suggesting that it's the done thing to rev the bollix off your V6 every so often!
OK... so there's this guy opposite me who is a bit of a plonker who has a Reliant Scimitar V6 And... every month or so he comes out and literally rev's the nuts off it for 15 minutes and goes back indoors again
Can't think why else we would both be subjected to it! 
p.s. This guys is a convertible like this, don't say your neighbours one is also maroon? 
Rich...
richb said:
How weird! There must have been an article in the Scimitar Club Monthly suggesting that it's the done thing to rev the bollix off your V6 every so often!
phew..no this one is a yellow FH........one things for sure i bet they both need an engine rebuild in the NTDF.
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