Engine cool down after driving?

Hello I was just curious whether people let the car idle for couple minutes after driving to cool down the engine. I ve seen many people warm up the car but never cool down. Any thoughts? In my case I drive 17 mustang GT and I let it cool down for 2 to 3 minutes before I shut down the car. Was wondering if I am doing the right thing.

what is your reasoning, the warm up is to permit the oil to come to temperature. Only cars I have ever heard doing a cool down for were turbocharged and that was many years ago.

Just turn the car off, you don't have a huge turbo to cool down.

By the time I stop and back into my garage I feel comfortable just shutting off the engine...no idle time required.

No need to cool down for NA.
Turbo engines might need some cooling down for the turbo so the oil in the turbo don't overheat.

My wife's daily driver has twin turbos. You think she's sitting there letting it cool down? Not necessary.

No clue how legitimate this is, but was told if you are hot lapping the car and still have catalytic converters its wise to let it run and cool a little bit before shutting it down. Something along the lines of the cats need the engine running to cool them properly for long life. Anyone ever hear this?

I was heard that N/A engines do also need to cool down since it can stick on manifold and pistons due to high temperature. This is not an accurate info, so I was trying to see and figure out if I was doing the right thing for my car.

I let my EcoBoost idle for a few seconds before I shut it down, so that the oil flows through the turbo and cools down, especially if I've been driving the car hard. Otherwise I just drive normally before I reach my destination, so that by the time I go through the parking lot the oil has been pumped through the system and cooled down appropriately.

Whether I have to do this or not I am not sure but I do it anyway to avoid oil coking in the turbo.

kms0567 said:

I was heard that N/A engines do also need to cool down since it can stick on manifold and pistons due to high temperature. This is not an accurate info, so I was trying to see and figure out if I was doing the right thing for my car.

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I have no idea what you are talking about.

If you do lapping on a track where the engine is at high rpm for an extended period then yes you should do a cool down but as long as you haven't been burning up the side roads before pulling into the garage there's no need to.

Just drive normal for a few minutes before shutting it off.

jasonstang said:

I have no idea what you are talking about.

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What I meant to say was if engine is shut down in high temp it could cause heat strain. Thats why I was told to cool off few minutes before shutting down the engine.

Thats why I was told to cool off few minutes before shutting down the engine.

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Who told you this exactly?

And in the case the engine is significantly overheated, you will do more damage leaving it running in that state vs. shutting it down.

But I can't imagine that just driving around town is gonna get the engine overheated enough to cause issues (unless the cooling system fails). Hell, even after a 30 minute track session the engine is not hot enough to cause issues.

You're overthinking this. Park the car and go on your way.

I was told my a mechanic close by. So basically on a regular road drive, I should just shut down the engine as soon as I arrive instead of idleing and cooling off.

kms0567 said:

I was told my a mechanic close by. So basically on a regular road drive, I should just shut down the engine as soon as I arrive instead of idleing and cooling off.

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Unless you are having mechanical issues during the drive, your car won't get hot that it would need cooled off. If you're at operating temp after the drive, just idling won't reduce your engine temp. If anything, it will go up due to less airflow.

So you achieve nothing by idling your car after a drive besides wasting fuel.