Driving right after startup, was: Smoking during warm up

["D. Dardalis" <dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with this.  The reasons why a cold engine should not be pushed hard 
are multiple.  The pistons have not quite grown to their proper clearance 
so the load on the rings is high, the cylinder bores are not quite expanded 
to their normal shape (after the typical thermal distortions), the oil is 
below operating temperature so it drags the engine, the heads are too cool 
sucking up much of the combustion heat, etc etc.   However, driving the car 
lightly after startup is hardly any stress on the engine.  These engines 
are quite under-stressed anyway.   Warm up sucks a lot of gasoline.  You 
may just as well use all this fuel to also propel your car.

D^2

At 04:35 AM 5/7/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>I remember my Dad's 61 Desoto owners manual said the best way to warm up 
>the car was by driving it (I was a teenager, bored, and read the whole 
>thing once on a trip...OK)   Once you have oil pressure I would not think 
>you were going to hurt anything as long as you didn't push it.
>
>Kerry