Interesting thread. I'm going to consider worrying less about warming up my car before driving it. Even on my DD i usually let it idle for at least a minute before any throttle.

 

I fire mine up and go. Again, like you and Sav said, taking it easy with very little throttle input. But I have gotten on it a few times pulling into traffic when its stone cold then I think, "****." and baby it for the rest of the way to work like it's going to make up for what I did lol "It'll be okay, daddy won't hurt you anymore." (except add some rubber in 3rd gear too lol)

 

I live on a hill, with twisty and narrow streets. So, warming the car up becomes a non issue as I roll down the hill at idle. Takes a while, and the engine warms up by the time I reach the flats.
I do not boost until oil gets up to 50C.
There are days when I have to drive the other way - up the hill, too. I warm up the car for about 5 minutes before I tackle the steep hill on a stone cold engine. I use my remote starter for that.
Had I lived on a flat street, I would just drive away with minimum throttle input.

BTW, I checked the stock temp gauge out of curiosity.
The gauge does not register (the needle does not move) below about 50C coolant temp. It barely starts moving at about 48 - 50 C, and gets dead in the middle (12 o'clock position) at about 90C.
Oil temp chases behind, maybe 10 degrees colder (in C) till the coolant temp gauge settles in the middle, then catches up in a couple minutes, and may exceed coolant temp by a few degrees, depending on conditions.
These were all observed under normal driving conditions.

 

if temps are that cold by you, why not get a block heater they work pretty good in cold climates . I did a supra from canada that we put one in. Customer raved about it said car warmed up in 10 min to full operating temp after starting . Dont remember the brand but i think it was for a land cruiser.

 

I live in a temperate climate so with the advice given so far (thanks everyone) the plan is to DD it including for the short gentle downhill drive from home to work with no warm up and with minimal throttle and revs. Might warm it up for a minute or so before leaving work and will drive equally gently home.

Overall it seems this will cause some extra wear, but hardly any more (perhaps less) than any other machine started from cold a couple of times a day, and I'll live with the extra wear.

What extra preventive maintenance should I do?

How and when do I check for the time when I've eventually caused too much extra wear? Maybe regular compression checks?

 

Blackstone Labs

That too

 

The Mazda dealership I work at has today come up with an even better solution - a '98 Mazda 626 for pocket money $$$$. Sorted.

 

Lol yup that's a good solution. I've got a '99 Maxima beater I paid $800 for. I'll drive my built MSM to work fairly regularly in the summertime but when it's cold or ugly out, the beater gets some exercise.

 

BUMP, i see it mentioned in this thread but never really elaborated on. I'm building a "mild" bottom end (forged rods, oem pistons, chrome rings, ARP main/head) and now I'm trying to decide on bearings.

1) is there ANY downside to running "race" bearings (such as ACL race) in a DD motor? Such as quicker bearing wear in daily conditions, etc?

2) is there any reason I should be considering "race" bearings in my DD motor? It may see a few track days a year, lots of street/canyon flogging, but it's far from a "track" or "race" motor.

Just trying to decide on bearings, and if it's worth the extra $100 to upgrade from OEM/king/clevite/etc. oem style bearings to a "race" tri metal bearing or not. It's not the $$ i'm worried about (no problem at all, really), it's just if there is absolutely no point in running them (or if there are downsides to them), i'll stick with OEM.

Thanks guys!

 

It could be argued that OEM are perfectly fine.
Honda engine builders typically do this they just strictly follow clearances.
Then there's Mazda that built the 500hp Miata dragster, I wonder what they used.

ACL racing seems to norm with us though
I don't see how race bearings would wear faster they are suppose to be harder, no?

 

I agree with this. OEM "should" be perfectly fine because there "should" be no direct contact between the bearings and crank. However, i guess the hardened ones are there for if that does happen to prevent damage as quickly? With harder bearings are you more likely to wipe out your crank if you do have a bearing failure of some kind? I'm just trying to weigh the pro's and con's of race bearings to see if i should be using them for my setup.

Oh and i estimate a ~300whp max on this setup, probably will spend most of its life at 250-280whp.