I wait for 2 or 3 bars to pull away. I don't hit vtec for at least 15 minutes. You don't want to be pushing an engine when the oil is still cool and thick.

My last car was a Vette. It gave a seperate water and oil temp reading. The oil temp reading lags WAY behind the water temp. After 10 minutes of running the water temp would be pushing 180 degrees, but the oil was still barely over 100 degrees. The new Lotus Elise actually has a rev limiter that prevents getting into the second cam until the oil is hot enough. Elise owners report this to take as long as 15 minutes.

Steve

 

no point in a prolonged idle once the engine has reached idle revs, and oil has circulated its go time. Keep in mind if you leave the car to warm up a while the diff and tranny are still way below the temps they need to be. Warming up the tranny properly is usually my biggest goal.

 

After it purrs for about 30 seconds or soI roll out and take it easy till I hit 3 bars. I am more concerned about oil getting distributed thoroughly than the block cracking from temp. stress. Maybe if I lived somewhere where the car sat in sub-freezing temps, but here in FL it is not an issue.

Craig

 

(I'm not even going to explain the reason for this smilie. I think most people will understand why.)

 

 

Allowing the car to sit and idle is bad for your spark plugs over time. This may not be as much of a concern for the OE platinums but the car runs very rich during warm up and sitting at idle several mornings over a period of time will increase the wear.

I wait for the air pump to turn off (approx 30 seconds) and then keep the revs under 4k until I have reached 3 bars. I also slow my shifts down and use more control while the tranny is warming.

 

I'm not a mechanical engineer but it is my sense that warming the car before 'loading' the engine would reduce wear because most parts would be [ nominally ] at their steady-state temperature, and thus have expanded to their normal configuration. Warming it up WHILE loading, even if you're gentle, would defeat the idea here. FWIW, I always warmed up my Accord and used Mobil 1 every 3K and got 336K before selling it to some college kid.

 

Probably most people at here knew it but amazingly there are people that don't know what it means
to warm-up engine. There is many drivers that looks like they're car enthusiast but right after
they turn on the engine they blast off from parking lot revving engine like crazy. I understand its
obvious for drivers like you and me or most of people out here, but also there is people actually
don't know about these. I just wrote my previous post for those people.

 

Then how about possibly listening to the majority in this thread?

Start the car, turn on the radio, buckle your seatbelt and DRIVE. I too keep it under 3-4k until three bars show up and don't VTEC until at least ten minutes after the third bar shows up on the 00-03 temp gauge. The car is designed to warm up on the go. Idling does nothing beneficial for your car or engine.