On warming up your bike before riding.

[Aaron]

This is applicable to pretty much every 4 stroke engine.

Here is how you should warm up your car or motorcycle, no matter the weather. Start the vehicle, put it in gear, and drive right away. You should not "warm up" a 4 cycle engine. During the time that the motor is started and oil reaches operating temp, extreme care should be given to limit engine rpm. I shift at 4,000rpm on my bike, and 2,000 in my cars while they are coming up to operating temperature. Throttle percentage doesn't particularly make a difference, so long as rpm is limited.

Cold idle is the most wear-inducing rpm point on an engine. Even when outside temperatures are 100 degrees, oil is still not even halfway to the temperature where it is made to perform at. Idle is also a particularly hard rpm for engines. They are out of balance and run rough, there's no load, and worst of all, oil flow and pressure is too low. The two worst things for en engine, idle and cold oil, and we're going to let the engine sit in this state for 15 minutes?

That's not even accounting for the other reasons. It wastes gas, it's illegal, bad for the environment, raises risk of theft, and annoys your neighbors.

By driving the vehicle right away, we put a load on it, and get the rpm up a little, which increases oil flow and pressure. The loading also creates heat, bringing the engine up to temperature quicker.

For automatic transmission cars, after cold start one should wait until the engine rpm settles to normal idle before putting it in gear. This shouldn't take more than 30 seconds. Shifting from park to drive at 1800 rpm on a cold transmission is not something conducive with longevity. Once rpm settles to a normal idle, drive right away, again taking care to limit engine rpm.

Next I'll be going into parking brakes, and after that changing driving habits for better gas mileage.

[~Barn~]

All of my motorcycle manuals have had sections with similar (albeit briefer) words about not letting the bike sit after starting.

Here's a previous thread about it too.

[matt2778]

Where are you getting your information? You know some cars with not let you shift into over drive when cold. How would you limit rpm then? What is you live right off the highway? Then your choices are sit and let idle or run down the highway at high rpm without over drive

[FZRguy]

I disagree.

[Aaron]

Where are you getting your information? You know some cars with not let you shift into over drive when cold. How would you limit rpm then? What is you live right off the highway? Then your choices are sit and let idle or run down the highway at high rpm without over drive

You're not going to find this as reliable information because I'm not an ASE certified oil changer, but it's a hobby of mine. My only hobby. I've built more engines than I can count, and do engine swaps when I feel like it. My current car is a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC turbo making 487hp on the stock block. I'll give you details, but this isn't your ordinary Fiero.

Oil temperature is the most crucial thing to longevity there is. Used Wal Mart brand 5w30 protects better at operating temp than any cold synthetic out there.

In that case, I'd honestly take the highway still. What car do you have that doesn't have an OD gear? My aforementioned Fiero even has OD!

[CaptGoodvibes]

My MOM says I can ride normally as soon as engine temp registers on my cluster; 104F btw.

[madvlad]

I let the oil cycle through at least for a minute at cokd start. Once I've gone somewhere stop and then go again then maybe 15-30in seconds. You can't let the head of the engine starve by just going right off the bat.

[Frankie675]

There must be a difference between heavy weighted sythetic oil and light cheap oil. Every once in a great while I won't let my bike warm up and I can instantly feel the difference of the oil not being up to temp. I can see if you have a light weighted oil it will circulate no differently being at temp or cold.

[matt2778]

You're not going to find this as reliable information because I'm not an ASE certified oil changer, but it's a hobby of mine. My only hobby. I've built more engines than I can count, and do engine swaps when I feel like it. My current car is a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC turbo making 487hp on the stock block. I'll give you details, but this isn't your ordinary Fiero.

Oil temperature is the most crucial thing to longevity there is. Used Wal Mart brand 5w30 protects better at operating temp than any cold synthetic out there.

In that case, I'd honestly take the highway still. What car do you have that doesn't have an OD gear? My aforementioned Fiero even has OD!

I did not say I do not have overdrive. I said the car will not allow shift into overdrive until operating temp is met. So on a cold day it could take 5-15 minutes of idling to reach this or drive without overdrive until operating temp is met. Therefore you theory of not having a long idle or high rpm is out the window.

[3point5]

My current car is a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC turbo making 487hp on the stock block.

Not something to brag about...

My current car is a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC turbo making 487hp on the stock block

Enough said...

[sag]

who cares if it annoys the neighbors if were already pissing off every motorist and trucker on the road by hypermiling? :P

anyways, i dont warm up. usually start it just before sitting on it or while i throw my helmet on and just go.

[NZ Darren]

When I leave work in the morning during winter, I let it warm up for a few min. Summer, start it, put on helmet and gloves then ride.
Cars I never warm up, just seems a waste of gas.

[gsxridiot]

Not something to brag about...



Enough said...

??? sounds like a sick ride to me
500hp in a fiero? holy shnikies!

[3point5]

??? sounds like a sick ride to me
500hp in a fiero? holy shnikies!

serious, I'll act like you didnt just say that!? In my opinion, there is nothing appealing of a pontiac fiero - if Aaron wants to put his time & money into a pontiac, more power to him. 500whp is a feat, sure - but there are honda civics that can make 500hp…I'm nuts deep in a 350z build, I'd like to think I'll see 600whp…out of a similar 3.5 liter twin turbo…

http://my350z.com/forum/forced-induc...win-build.html'

sorry for hijacking the thread...

[~Barn~]

Sweet. You're building a car that's going to be as fast as a Fiero.

[vort3xr6]

Well said. Very similar to break in philosophies. Lots of strong opinions on both subjects. I use cheap Walmart Rotella oil, I never warm up vehicles unless I am waiting for defrost to work, and I ride/drive every brand new motor like I stole it.

[FZRguy]

I owned a Fiero...hope you fixed the understeer like a muther handling.

[Ghosty]

My current car is a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC turbo making 487hp on the stock block. I'll give you details, but this isn't your ordinary Fiero.

Badass! What was the donor car for that 3.4 motor?

Not something to brag about...

Why not?

Enough said...

How so?

Honda Civic, LOL! Prodution numbers: five-hundred-gazillion. I know there are a few really fast Civics in Denver, but IT'S STILL A FUCKING CIVIC. Enough said...

[psyclone]

I wish I could ride away after starting my Monster, but the engine will just die. The factory starting procedure is to turn on the "fast idle" control and let the bike warm up for 5 minutes. I just tell myself its another "unique" characteristic of an Italian bike ... yeah right!

[Drano]

Badass! What was the donor car for that 3.4 motor?

I believe it was from a 1995 Monte Carlo Z34.

[Aaron]

serious, I'll act like you didnt just say that!? In my opinion, there is nothing appealing of a pontiac fiero - if Aaron wants to put his time & money into a pontiac, more power to him. 500whp is a feat, sure - but there are honda civics that can make 500hp…I'm nuts deep in a 350z build, I'd like to think I'll see 600whp…out of a similar 3.5 liter twin turbo…

http://my350z.com/forum/forced-induc...win-build.html'

sorry for hijacking the thread...

Wow you can buy parts made for the car and bolt them together. Mad skills right there. Let me know when you make 2 1/2 times stock power on 8.7psi. That's when my build impresses. And the fact that the Fiero never came with a 3.4L.

The engine came out of a 1995 Monte Carlo Z34, stock is 180whp through an automatic. I built my own motor mounts (5-point mounted), built my own fuel lines, built my own wiring harness, built my own coolant lines, and mixed and matched intake manifolds to get the best one. I had the heads ported and polished (278int 225exh at 500 lift), 48g lightened lifters, a 75mm throttle body with a 3" intake arm I built. I built the headers, 1.75" mandrel bent with tuned equal length primaries. I built the Y-pipe, again equal length 2.5". I built the down pipe, 3" with a circulating waste gate. And I built the entire exhaust system. Again, only mandrel bent pipes. I then built the cold side myself, mandrel bends only, and it's air/water intercooled.

The engine actually didn't come from a donor car, it was a brand new crate engine. Forgot to add it also has an aluminum flywheel, a deep sump oil pan I built (8 qt oil changes ya baby), and probably a few other things I forgot to mention.

[Aaron]

I owned a Fiero...hope you fixed the understeer like a muther handling.

About that lol. The Fiero is probably the most fun I've ever had driving a car, but the handling is awful and mine is no exception. It has lovely lift throttle oversteer, that happens so fast there's no way to control it, then it plows trough the corner like your mother's Buick, and then when I apply 487hp as it starts to straighten out it lifts the front end so hard that it won't steer at all and continues wherever it was pointing when you apoed throttle.

My SRT8 and my bike are on the front burners right now, but I do plan on eventually spending a lot of money and building a proper Fiero.

[jcj81]

Why did you go with the X 3.4 I cringe when I have had to work on those back when GM started use them, X motor cars would be towed in not starting timing belts shredded, have a pain in the ass timing belt procedure. It does look nice, props for getting it all working you'e got some skill making it work.

[Aaron]

I've always loved the soul or personality of the 3.4 DOHC. It's hard to explain, but the motor just has a lot of life to it. It's a very fun motor to drive. It's quiet and smooth on the low end, and it comes to life with the cams at 3500rpm, complete 180 degree change. It develops a deep intake growl that sustains to 7200rpm. They are very maintenance intensive, and timing belts are pure hell. But in the Fiero, they are shockingly easy to work on.