Warming up the car before pushing it.

[Stephane4985]

Maybe a stupid question but what are the things you look at to figure out that the car is warmed up enough to go WOT. I have a 2018 GT pp1 and usually I wait for the engine temp gauge to be in the green (indicating normal). Is it enough? Should I wait for any other reading (gearbox oil temp, oil psi, etc...) before considering the car reading to be pushed?

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[PanicSwitch89]

Honestly, I leave launch control turned on..."LC" will pop up next to your driving modes in the hud which means the car is telling me it's properly warmed up. To me it's the simplest way to tell.

 

[Rock&Roll]

I start it up and wait about 10 -20 seconds and go. I don’t really push it hard for the 1st few minutes.

 

[jacknifetoaswan]

I have a Performance Pack car, so I just wait until the oil pressure drops to a normal level. When I start the car, it's near 100 PSI, after a couple minutes, it drops to 30-40.

JR

 

[1MEAN18]

Cylinder head temps of at least 195 degrees and you are truly good to go.

 

[Ebm]

When first starting up, I let it do its warm up procedure aka idling over 1k rpm for several seconds. After it drops back down to 1k rpm or below, I drive conservatively(below 3k rpm) until fully warmed up. It's overkill, but it's just how I like doing things. I check 2 things to make sure the car is warmed up. I check oil temp and cylinder head temp readings. Make sure oil temp is in the green and cylinder head is at least 195 degrees like said above.

 

[EFI]

You want the engine itself to be at operating temp (~200* CHT) before pushing it semi-hard and you want the oil temp to also be in the lower mid section of the graph before going to redline.

The others (diff, trans etc) should be fine by those points also. The biggest thing with the engine is you want all clearances to be expanded to their normal range so you don't have cylinder wall scoring or excessive high oil pressure.

 

[Schwerin]

When first starting up, I let it do its warm up procedure aka idling over 1k rpm for several seconds. After it drops back down to 1k rpm or below, I drive conservatively(below 3k rpm) until fully warmed up. It's overkill, but it's just how I like doing things. I check 2 things to make sure the car is warmed up. I check oil temp and cylinder head temp readings. Make sure oil temp is in the green and cylinder head is at least 195 degrees like said above.

This is what I do as well.

 

[bnightstar]

Honestly, I leave launch control turned on..."LC" will pop up next to your driving modes in the hud which means the car is telling me it's properly warmed up. To me it's the simplest way to tell.

I didn't know the LC light is not on when the car is cold that's interesting should test it. Otherwise I mostly watch the tires PSI if it's around 2.5 bar (factory is 2.2) mean my tires are hot enough not to kill me.

 

[Tone Everready]

I’m a puss. Transmission to 150F, and all should be good. By then, everything else is up.

 

[w3rkn]

When you reach normal operating temp...

 

[Zelek]

I wait for the oil temp to hit normal.

 

[bootlegger]

Honestly, I leave launch control turned on..."LC" will pop up next to your driving modes in the hud which means the car is telling me it's properly warmed up. To me it's the simplest way to tell.

What I do as well. LC will come on around the time the coolant temp gauge is about 40%. It's never good to start a cold engine and go straight to WOT. Most modern engines can handle it for a while, but you will likely pay in the long run.

 

[Stephane4985]

Thanks all for the feedback. Looks like head temp of 195 and normal oil temp is on the safe side. I'll also might test that LC icon to see what are the conditions for it to show up.

 

[Biggus Dickus]

I do the same but I've let my cars idle in the garage for about 10 minutes before leaving (going back to my first new car - a 1990 Mustang GT Convertible) - overkill and unnecessary by some estimates - but I'm old school.

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