5.3 care of engine when cold

[brianh26]

was wondering what kind of RPM barrier I should have as far as how high I rev ar acceleration when its very cold out around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Dont want to put premature damage to my engine. Thanks

[02suburbanZ71]

When its that cold be sure to warm it up for a few minutes. The engine and trans fluid need to be heated up a little before use. You wont really cause any damage unless you start it cold and floor it every day

 

Once the engine is at full operating temp then feel free to go nuts.

[brianh26]

I always let the temp gauge come off 160 before driving but in these cold temps that takes 5 minutes or more and then even when I take off it revs higher before shifting to second and third gears

[NitroCherokee]

My Yukon currently has 205,xxx miles on it, it was -7* F when i fired it this morning and it was in gear before the starter disengaged. I have done this to this thing since day 1 and usually am standing on it pretty hard right out of the driveway. Just let her eat, she can take it

[brianh26]

Just seems like that would be so hard on an engine to me. Have you ever had to do any motor work because of it?

[MikeNH]

I let mine idle a few minutes in this cold. No one will ever convince me that starting and immediately going on a cold engine is okay. I don't do that even in the summer on cold starts.

[POS VETT]

It doesn't take long for the coolant temperature gauge to "depart" the 160F (lowest) indicator. What I do usually is to start the truck and then put on shoes and outerwear. By the time I have keys, wallet, phone and stuff ready to go, 2-3 minutes have passed; 4-5 minutes if the family is involved. Get in the truck, buckle in, turn on a few things, adjust them briefly, and the coolant temperature gauge indicates over 160F.

[brianh26]

I let mine idle a few minutes in this cold. No one will ever convince me that starting and immediately going on a cold engine is okay. I don't do that even in the summer on cold starts.

 

I'm with ya there!

[Jsdirt]

My Yukon currently has 205,xxx miles on it, it was -7* F when i fired it this morning and it was in gear before the starter disengaged. I have done this to this thing since day 1 and usually am standing on it pretty hard right out of the driveway. Just let her eat, she can take it

Same with my '72 El Camino I used to run daily. Who knows how many miles. Used to fire it up and go every day I used it, but didn't drive it in winter .. so not a apples to apples comparison.

 

My '85 Monte Carlo with a 305 got absolutely abused. Same with my '78 Cutlass with a built 350 - never warmed up either one, and never had an issue. Ran 10w-30 in those temps too! Same with my FoMoCo products.

 

My '94 K1500 got treated the same. Was on it's second engine (by previous owner) at 182K - I bought it with 205k and ran it till I sold it with 266k about 4 years later. That one did get driven winters. As soon as the oil pressure gauge moved, I was off and running. I did restrain myself from full-throttle until I started getting heat out the vents though.

 

My '07 has been treated the same. 73,6xx so far, but I have much more faith in the older engines than I do in this one. It raps, ticks, & burns oil ... and has for quite some time now. With manufacturing practices today, I'm inclined to let them idle a few minutes before I go anywhere. The old ones could go full throttle right out of the gate at -10°F, and still run 300k plus.

[Colossus]

Running full synthetic oil in the engine will greatly help reduce engine wear when starting the truck when cold, but a good rule of thumb I like to follow is in temps below 40 degrees when first starting after the vehicle has sat for more than 4 hours, I'll let it idle for a minimum of 1 minute. Remember that colder oil and fluids are thicker and more dense, thus making lubrication more difficult and also results in higher pressure levels. I also will put the vehicle into gear and sit on the brake for about 15-30 seconds in real cold weather to allow the transmission pump to circulate some of that cold thick tranny fluid around as well. (this won't work on every type of auto transmission) Avoid hard acceleration if you can for the first 2-3 minutes of driving and I think that should be enough to put your mind at ease. Just like you want to do a good warm up/stretch before you begin exercising, you want to let your vehicle do a little warming up too.

[02suburbanZ71]

Yea 5-30w RP made my piston slap go away. Much quieter at idle. I let mine idle 10-20, minutes before i drive mine

[LaserBlueZ71]

Honestly, this is an old piece of information that seems to follow generations.

 

30+ years ago, machining was nowhere near where it is today. Engines did not have the extremely tight tolerances of today, or fuel injection systems capable of adjusting/firing multiple times per second, per cylinder. Add in the fact that the cheapest, crappiest engine oil you can buy today, is many times more advanced than the very best oil ever used in any engine even 10 years ago. Unless your in anything colder than -20 Celsius, I wouldn't worry about letting anything warm up. In extreme cold I would let the vehicle warm up, but more so to get heat flowing to the cabin than to let the components warm up. The truth is, an engine under load is going to heat up much faster than an idling engine that isn't doing any work. The sloppy, carburated engines of yesteryear needed to warm up before they drove well, but not the engines of today. Once she is running, put it in gear and go.

[Jsdirt]

Wonder why my engines of yesteryear had no TICKING at idle, and none of them burned oil like my 5.3 does?? Had the same power and same fuel mileage as my computer controlled wonder with just a set of points & a carburetor. Hmmm ....

 

Just thinking out loud ....

[02suburbanZ71]

It could be injector tick. My 02 5.3 has that when very cold

[j-ten-ner]

The question is not to warm the engine up or not. It's about driving rpm.

 

Wait at least 'til the idle rpm go down before shifting into gear. Less stress on the trans imo.

I don't rev the engine higher than 2000rpm when I start driving. And actually I don't need more to accelerate quick enough.

 

so long

j-ten-ner