cold starts...what do you do?

[pistonheader]

it's been bloody cold through most of the country lately, we had a couple of inches snow fall here friday. my car was sat for 5-6 days or so, covered in snow/ice/frost and took me 20minutes to get it off the front and rear screens! anyway, to my surprise, i pulled the choke cable out on full and the old girl fired into life within about 1/2 a second, despite having been sat for a while.

in this scenario, what do you/would you do...drive the car off straight away (changing gear at low rpm obviously and no full throttle) or do you leave it on idle for a few minutes? i know the owners book says drive off, but, that was 30 years ago

thanks

i know i've not been here for a while, but don't worry, E21 is still going strong. i'm getting it undersealed next week too.

Ross.

[Jason_323i]

Cars warm up a lot quicker driving than sitting at idle depends if you can drive slow for a few miutes or if you straight onto a fast road.

[e21-Mark]

I normally sit long enough to do up my seat belt, check fuel gauge etc, then drive off slowly till I see the temp gauge start to go up before going over 2000rpm.

[thetomc]

Hi Ross. Good to see your still here and haven't sold your car.
In my e21 and e30 (M42 engines) i drive off and try to not go above 3500 for a few mins.

When i was in Bristol though when my e21 was still running an M10 i'd pretty much just beat it from cold every day regardless. It loved it!! Especially the cold mornings Never did it any harm but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

M10s rule!!!:
My old M10 engine went on to do 3 and a half seasons in a banger racer! Was still running sweet making great power when it was finally killed by the car it was in getting T-boned and the throttle jamming open. It died throwing rods through both sides of the block at above 8000rpm what a way to go for a brilliant engine.

[Lars-Nord]

I never do cold starts as the car not been used in the cold period. And I allways let it idle to the needle is over the blue mark.

[pistonheader]

yup, still have the E21 tom ferodo pads still doing well they seem fine on cold braking too but epic once you use them hard a few times!

i usually shift below 2500rpm or so, but there is a small incline so i shift at about 2750ish because otherwise the engine is labouring a bit, in which case it's probably doing more harm.

thing with idling is....doesn't warm the diff or gearbox oil up does it? have noticed it's interesting first shifting into 2nd from 1st or back from 3rd gear within 1st minute or 2 of driving in these conditions, it's really tough! my car is looking sorry for itself.......



i can't clean it but the paint is well protected at the moment at least

[Lars-Nord]

I know it dosent warm up the diff and gear, but that oil is thinner and dont have so many places to go. And the driving is wery in the start.
Not that the car have had so mutch hard driving at all.

just som fun driving in the stelvio and the ardennes