Just wondering what you're guys thoughts are on warming up air cooled cars? I try to let it warm up for like 5 mins....is that over kill? Should you warm up engines for longer in the cold months or is it just better to get the oil circulating for a few mins and then drive off??

Never needed to warm mine up.
Just don't over rev the engine for the first km or so

dont think you would have to worry too much in Brissy

more so down south


I usually let mine warm for a minute or so on fast idle then take it slowly not over reving for 2 klms or so or at least until the first red light looking for a race off the line

i could be wrong but i thought i read somewhere (maybe a vw manual not sure tho), that the best way to warm up a vw engine is to drive it as thats the quickest way to bring it up to operating temp. again i could be wrong and frequently am.

I would of thought that if there wasn't oil circulating properly it would wear the engine quicker... I wouldn't argue with the manual though

I would of thought that if there wasn't oil circulating properly it would wear the engine quicker... I wouldn't argue with the manual though

Oil will be circulating immediately upon start-up, well it certainly should be anyway. It's the temperature and viscosity of the oil that is the issue, but being air cooled our engines have less mass to heat up so therefore actually come up to temp much quicker than a water pumper. They also cool down quickly too. Then there's the issue of thermostats......

Once the oil pressure light stops glowing, you know its pumping through.
There will always be a residual oil coating on the bearings and tappets prior to start, held there by surface tension anyways.

Some car manufacturer's recommend not putting the throttle down when starting as it puts the bearings under load prior to the few seconds to build oil pressure, vw is an exception. the older kombi manuals would tell you to bury the pedal when warm starting a donk because on some occasions the engine plays hard to get (well... hard to start).

Regardless, cold starts will always pose some form of wear. Big thing i remember from a Ukrainian professor (engineer) we had at uni is his story of his involvement with a certain diesel engine in a truck performing cold starts in sub zero temperatures. The wear caused to the engine from a single cold start was the equivalent wear of 5,000 km (some drastic crazy value) of driving. Hence why this company called for his assistance back in the day when he wasn't in the classroom to resolve the issue to ensure longevity of their assets.

vw's are a different story of course, but puts it into perspective. Dry starts cause alot of premature wear (in regards to a cold start) and i can't see why a vw would be an exception. Most oil filters (if not all) have anti-back drain valves to prevent this, but of course the stock vw don't doesn't have this. Dry starts often characterised by a bearing rattle a second or so just after starting. Oil additives like Lucus Oil Stabiliser help prevent dry start wear by maintaining a sticky coating on the bearings when the engine is shut down.

I have heard from reputable resources, taht for your standard car and climate, the wear posed to a 'normal' engine doing a dry start will always be existant but no calls for concern. The rate of wear would be minimal in comparison to the rate of wear of all other components about the engine (valves, rings, tappets blah blah). The point of an engine warm up anyways isn't necessarily the 'oil circulating', its about letting thermal expansion take place for all components in the engine to 'seat' into correct tolerances properly for when the engine reaches its designed operating temperature (warmed up).

Chris.

On a cold morning I need to let mine warm up for about 2 - 3 minutes, otherwise it wont rev properly and it sounds like it hits a rev limiter early and has no guts. I figured it was due to the cam and carb set up as you can hear the idle change from a really lumpy splutter to a well polished military drumming tattoo of an idle when its warm.