Ding! For the sake of expedience, drop a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator and try it tomorrow morning. Cheap, easy, reversible.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Larry Alster Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 2:26 PM To: 'Mark Cookson'; 'Miata Power List' Subject: RE: [NPC] [NMC] How to warm up a diesel? Well I own a Chevy Duramax truck and it comes with a grill cover. At less than 35 degrees you're supposed to cover over the grill to allow less air flow through the radiator. If it warms up or the engine starts to run warm you're supposed to fold an edge over to allow more flow. Look at the over the road diesel trucks and you'll see they either have grill covers or the newer ones have grills that are built with louvers to close the grill opening. Diesels are design with lots of radiator capacity for the warm weather and you need to restrict it in the cold weather. Diesels don't even make full power if they aren't up to normal operating temperature. I would never excessively rev a cold diesel engine to try to keep it warm. Larry White Knight 1991 Crystal White #99 CSP Silver Bullet 1992 Silverstone #17 SM2 FM I+ Turbo Honey B 1992 Sunburst Yellow #99 SM2L JR Supercharger Whooosh 2004 Titanium Mazdaspeed MX-5 LowCountry Miata http://www.lowcountrymiataclub.net Masters Miata RAGS 074 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark Cookson Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 3:21 PM To: Miata Power List Subject: [NPC] [NMC] How to warm up a diesel? So, while this seems like something that I should be able to figure out myself, I thought I would ask you guys too... I'm living in Minnesota (near Saint Paul). My wife and I carpool and we take her car (she can't drive stick and usually needs the car for the day), which is a Jetta TDI. The problem is that when it's cold, like -20F (-29C), or even 0F (-18C), it's really cold in the car, and the car doesn't warm up easily. If you stop at a stop light, you lose a tick or two on the temp gauge, especially if you have the heater fan on more than the minimal setting. I can easily drive the 20 miles from home to work without ever hitting the "normal" 190F operating temp. The question is, what's the best way to warm a diesel? Obviously idling doesn't do it. It's got a "manu-mattic" transmission, so I have been manually shifting and revving to about 3k before I shift (redline is 4500) and keeping it out of 6th gear. Today I was wondering if that was the best way to do it. Would putting it in the highest gear as soon as possible and using large throttle openings get the car to warm up faster? Since it's still an automatic, I can't shift much earlier than normal "D" driving, but I can do it a little earlier. I've found that I get it warmer faster than just driving in "D" with the 3k shifting, but that's not good enough. :-) If anyone else knows the answer, that doesn't involve blocking the radiator, please let me know. Thanks! Mark _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
