QOTD: Hot or Cold?

Last week’s ball-shattering polar vortex flash froze much of the U.S. and Canada, sending Netflix viewership soaring and no doubt spurring a mini baby boom in nine months’ time. While it may have been toasty in your home (sorry, Michigan gas customers), your car’s engine block found itself in a climate POW camp.

Hailing from the Great White North, I know all too well the prayers muttered while twisting the ignition key, knowing all too well your oil’s as thick as fudge and hoping with all your might that good wishes can be converted into cranking amps. Now, let’s say you succeed in firing up that ice-cold engine. What next?

There’s plenty of debate raging this week over the best strategy for reducing wear on your frigid engine block and precious moving components following a polar startup. Most of that debate raged over at Jalopnik, where some readers took exception to the idea that a car should be allowed to warm up for a short time before hitting the road.

Perhaps those ornery readers reside in sunnier climes? On January 30th, GM logged 1.59 million remote engine starts (via mobile app) from owners unwilling to sit in an ice locker, cursing, waiting for a breath of warm air to drift from the dash vents. That’s a 70 percent increase over an average January day in the United States, by the way.

While these GM owners probably had their own comfort in mind, not their engine’s, the controversy still rages. Should you get in and drive off right away, confident in your engine oil’s temperature-cheating viscosity, or let it sit? Chances are there isn’t 10W-30 in your crankcase. Should be fine, right?

Not necessarily, but there’s no perfect solution for this age-old conundrum. The best advice anyone can scrounge up comes from Dr. Andy Randolph, technical director at ECR Engines, who explained (in extreme detail) to Jalopnik that a two-minute warmup is probably your best bet.

This author, after 30 seconds to a minute or so of dicking around with the radio, climate controls, etc, is a fan of letting the clutch out and idling down the block at 10-12 mph or so, traffic permitting. The higher RPM upon cold weather startup allows an upshift to second gear. Why not make headway while the car warms up at idle?

So, B&B members, are you already a follower of Dr. Randolph’s advice, or do you start your cold car to the beat of a different drum?

[Image: Genesis Motors]