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From: phaeton on 3 Jan 2010 10:19 This morning it is -12F, and our projected high for the day is going to be 2F. Just like most mornings, I see people outside that get in their car, crank it over, and take off driving within 5 seconds of the engine starting. You sure couldn't do that in the old days with carburetors and points ignition, I bet. Probably shouldn't do it now, either. -J
From: hls on 3 Jan 2010 11:03 "phaeton" <blahbleh666(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:d53d36ee-bed9-47fb-a7d9-62281e792310(a)j24g2000yqa.googlegroups.com... > This morning it is -12F, and our projected high for the day is going > to be 2F. > > Just like most mornings, I see people outside that get in their car, > crank it over, and take off driving within 5 seconds of the engine > starting. > > You sure couldn't do that in the old days with carburetors and points > ignition, I bet. Probably shouldn't do it now, either. > > -J As you say, in the old days the carburetors - especially the automatic chokes - required that you warm up the engine more than you have to do today. I believe that with modern cars when you start the car and have oil pressure, you are good to go.
From: Scott Dorsey on 3 Jan 2010 11:54 jim <".sjedgingN0sp"@m(a)mwt.net> wrote: >Many of those cars back then would stumble or stall at very cold temperature >unless warmed up a little, but if the engine ran well driving off gently >probably would not be any worse than letting it sit and idle. But there are >other things that are different today than back when cars had points. Lowering >the sulfur content of fuel has eliminated much of the corrosion wear to rings >that was mostly present when sulfur combined with water vapor during engine warm >up. Removing lead from gasoline has also been shown to increase life of engines. >The wear cause by lead in gasoline I believe was also mostly blamed on corrosion >also. Dunno what the story is, but my (manual choke) carburated car starts up nicely on the first try in cold weather. It probably didn't do so thirty years ago, which implies something in the meantime has changed and it's probably got more to do with the fuel than the car. Mind you, around here 20F is considered really cold, and I have no intention of driving to a place where it is -25F. > However I think these tests were done at around 10F. I don't think there is >anything definitive for extremely cold temps. If temperature is around -25F then >you probably should give it about 30 seconds to warm up. Human beings should not live in places where temperature drop below about sixty degrees F. You have to wear clothes and stuff. Cold weather is much more detrimental to the driver than to the car. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
From: Don Stauffer on 3 Jan 2010 11:55 Oils are better today too. I can remember a few years ago when they would come up with a new service grade about every year. jim wrote: But there are > other things that are different today than back when cars had points. Lowering > the sulfur content of fuel has eliminated much of the corrosion wear to rings > that was mostly present when sulfur combined with water vapor during engine warm > up. Removing lead from gasoline has also been shown to increase life of engines. > The wear cause by lead in gasoline I believe was also mostly blamed on corrosion > also. > snip > -jim
From: jim on 3 Jan 2010 13:14
Don Stauffer wrote: > > Oils are better today too. I can remember a few years ago when they > would come up with a new service grade about every year. How many of those changes to service classifications had any effect on how oil behaved at low temperatures? > > jim wrote: > But there are > > other things that are different today than back when cars had points. Lowering > > the sulfur content of fuel has eliminated much of the corrosion wear to rings > > that was mostly present when sulfur combined with water vapor during engine warm > > up. Removing lead from gasoline has also been shown to increase life of engines. > > The wear cause by lead in gasoline I believe was also mostly blamed on corrosion > > also. > > snip > > -jim |