Is it necessary to heat up the engine?

Wife says I should let engine run a few minutes before driving the car. I told her this is not necessary and she said it is with older cars.

Do you guys run the engine for a few minutes when you turn it on?

For what it's worth, the owners manual for my 51 minor states not to let it sit idling to warm up, it's better to drive gently until up to temp as to reduce carbon fouling the plugs and to increase oil psi.

I only ever let it warm up long enough to open the gate and close it behind me, then tootle off. If you are real concerned you could get an engine oil temp gauge as that's a better judge of engine temp

Not a good idea - and especially with older designed engines. Look at most US built engines and the bearing clearances are a bit on the generous side. When the oil is cold it will generate a slightly better oil pressure reading. As the engine oil warms and loses a little viscosity, the engine components are starting to expand from heat which to some degree counteracts the oil viscosity decrease. I don't think it's necessary to sit at idle unless you're dealing with out of the ordinary cold start conditions. Really, by the time you've started the engine, done up your seat belt and downed the second mouthful of your a.m. coffee, you're ready to roll. Engine oil is already doing a few laps of the moving parts which is all it needs to prevent damage.

I let mine idle when it's cold. In the 40's it gets a minute. 20's and 30's I let it warm up until the needle comes off of the stop. Below 20 and I usually let it come up to temp. My breath will freeze on the inside of the windshield, so a nice hot defroster is necessary. I think idling causing all kinds of carbon fouling is a thing of the past. We have more refined oils and gasoline. How many crown victorias saw 10k hours of idling and 200k miles of hard driving before being sold to a taxi company.
My automatic transmission hangs onto gears a little longer and shifts harder when it's really cold. Letting it warm up for a few minutes eliminates that also.

My rule of thumb is if it has oil pressure it's good to drive. Engines tend to run better at their operating temperature and you get there faster by using it. Idling takes longer to warm the engine up. To me it makes more sense to pick the faster route.

I'm with Giovanni89 - particularly in cold weather. However, I'm certainly considering all that's being said on this thread. I'm old school, and adapt to changes very slowly.

In snow, I let my vehicles warm up while I'm scraping windows. I just don't like the idea of cold connecting rods being stressed before they have a chance to "wake up"...but that might just be my dysfunctional mind. Out here in the woods, I have 3 miles to get to pavement, so it's important to have the defroster working - a good warm up assists in that.


During Summer months, about one minute seems to get the juices flowing.

Older vehicles with carbs may need a minute or 2 to warm up enough not to stall when starting out, but any FI vehicle shouldn't need more that 15 to 30 seconds before starting out. Most FI vehicle manuals say not to warm them up unless the temp is below 0 F

COLD..! :merryxmas: :fingerscrossed: If it starts & does not die when put in gear and moves along, then it should be ok... Take it from me, a retired Fed Gov't worker... The vehicles we used never needed any water, oil or gas or insurance to drive..! I've never known of a frozen windshield to crack by dumping hot water on it... It's not boiling anymore by the time you get the pot out to the car anyway, it's only very hot... When I lived in Everett, WA my secret weapon commuting to work in the white stuff was the tank-less hot water heater in the garage... After using a push broom to remove most of the snow off the entire car; I used a garden hose from that tank-less water heater to quickly remove all the window ice... It was about a 5 or 6 minute job to remove all the snow & ice; by then, my 1989 2.8L Chevy Celebrity sedan was warm n' toasty inside...
Reminder: "Let her win the argument or at least compromise" ;]