How long do you wait to warm up the car?

[camaro500]

No warm up needed unless you drive in the winter. You ALWAYS must wait for everything to get up to running temperatures before competitive driving to avoid potential damage.

[Dupree878]

Originally Posted by 376LS3

I wait till the coolant temp gets to almost 1/4. My car runs like piss when its cold because it was tuned at operating temperature. So everything under that is awful.

My car isn't tuned, but since I put the headers on it it doesn't run smoothly until I'm over 100°
I won't move with it below 80°, and even when it is warm outside and the car is warm, I won't touch anything until the idle comes down in the oil pressure stabilizes

[shine2013]

In the winter, just long enough to de-ice the windows. So a couple of minutes.

[morenopeter]

Originally Posted by Denis

Depends on the ambient temp. But I usually wait for the coolant temp to read at least 100.

I do the same think i just like the number

In Miami though so don't take to long

[CocoaKid]

It was -30 here for a couple months, I'd let my car go for 5 mins roughly, or until the coolants at a bout 45 degrees, and drive it pretty easy for another 5 or so. Seems to be going strong, this car is proving to be tough as nails!

[Muscle Car Lover]

Originally Posted by mikeinmobile

Hot Rod magazine covered this extensively not too many years back and their conclusion was the quicker the car warmed up the better...so start up and drive like granny the first few miles and allow all systems to come up to temp together. Drawbacks to long warm ups were that the engine is warm but all other systems are still cold so many will drive normally and put too much wear on tranny, rear end, steering, brakes etc which are still cold.

I have a 75 Cutlass that I put 220,000 of the 300.000 miles that were on the original motor and always cranked and drove easy till warm. When we tore down the motor the bearings were good enough to reuse (of course I didn't). Just my experience.

Hot Rod's only problem with idle warm up was it takes longer to get fluids flowing and the temptation to drive like normal right out of the driveway. Another thing they said was it takes about ten miles to get all systems up to temp, so since I bought my Camaro, I've only cold cranked and drove less than 10 miles maybe 3 times in 54,000 miles. It's a hassle to drive the long way around when I just want to run up to the store (less than a mile away) but I consider it a long term investment in the longevity of the drivetrain.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

[CreeperRS]

About 3 minutes.

[cornerspeed92]

Doesn't go into gear til 145 degrees.