[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'm betting your engine warms up faster. Based on nothing

Originally Posted by Daox

I bet its slower, based on it being diesel.

And the winner is... Daox!!

Now the next question is: When does my 1.6 liter turbodiesel get up to operating temperature?

The find out the answer you'll have to read on :evil_smirk:

So today I found some time to do the idling test. When I started at noon it was sunny and a toasty -12°C (10°F) outside. Starting the cold soaked engine wasn't easy, especially when the battery is 5.5 years old and the glow plugs are acting up.

As mentioned earlier, I took notes every 30 seconds, writing down the intake air temperature, water temperature, fuel consumption and total fuel used. After the first few minutes I knew I was going to spend more time on this than 17 minutes. In fact, I spent more than twice that (35 minutes), and my coolant just barely got to 66°C (151°F). My normal operating temperature is 78°C (172°F). I wasted almost half a liter of diesel fuel. I could have kept it going indefinitely and the thermostat probably wouldn't open until April (starts to open around 83°C/181°F).

The experinment was done without my temporary thermal insulation, and with everything switch off. Here is the data:

time (minutes)	Intake air temperature (°C)	Water temperature (°C)	Fuel consumption (liters per hour)	Total fuel used (liters, diesel)
0	-12	-12	1.20	0.00
0.5	-11	-10	0.94	0.00
1	-11	-7	0.95	0.01
1.5	-11	-4	0.96	0.02
2	-11	0	1.05	0.03
2.5	-10	3	1.04	0.04
3	-10	6	1.02	0.05
3.5	-10	9	0.93	0.05
4	-10	11	0.91	0.06
4.5	-9	13	1.05	0.07
5	-9	14	1.02	0.08
5.5	-9	16	1.02	0.09
6	-8	18	0.98	0.10
6.5	-8	20	0.99	0.10
7	-8	21	0.96	0.11
7.5	-7	23	0.97	0.12
8	-7	24	1.00	0.13
8.5	-7	26	0.97	0.14
9	-6	27	0.94	0.14
9.5	-6	28	0.95	0.15
10	-6	29	0.78	0.16
10.5	-5	31	0.80	0.17
11	-5	32	0.80	0.17
11.5	-4	33	0.78	0.18
12	-4	34	0.78	0.19
12.5	-4	35	0.77	0.19
13	-3	36	0.75	0.20
13.5	-3	37	0.76	0.21
14	-3	38	0.76	0.21
14.5	-2	39	0.75	0.22
15	-2	40	0.75	0.22
15.5	-1	41	0.72	0.23
16	-1	42	0.73	0.24
16.5	-1	42	0.73	0.24
17	0	43	0.73	0.25
17.5	0	44	0.74	0.25
18	0	45	0.74	0.26
18.5	1	46	0.72	0.27
19	1	46	0.70	0.27
19.5	2	47	0.70	0.28
20	2	48	0.69	0.28
20.5	2	49	0.69	0.29
21	3	49	0.69	0.30
21.5	3	50	0.67	0.30
22	3	51	0.67	0.31
22.5	4	52	0.67	0.31
23	4	52	0.67	0.32
23.5	5	53	0.66	0.32
24	5	54	0.66	0.33
24.5	5	54	0.65	0.33
25	6	55	0.64	0.34
25.5	6	56	0.65	0.35
26	7	56	0.68	0.35
26.5	7	57	0.68	0.36
27	7	57	0.66	0.36
27.5	8	58	0.66	0.37
28	8	58	0.68	0.37
28.5	8	59	0.68	0.38
29	9	59	0.68	0.38
29.5	9	60	0.67	0.39
30	9	60	0.67	0.40
30.5	10	61	0.67	0.40
31	10	61	0.66	0.41
31.5	11	62	0.65	0.41
32	11	63	0.65	0.42
32.5	11	63	0.65	0.42
33	11	64	0.64	0.43
33.5	12	64	0.63	0.43
34	12	65	0.63	0.44
34.5	12	65	0.62	0.44
35	13	66	0.62	0.45

After the test was finished I turned the heat and blower on and set them to max, and the coolant temperature instantly dropped 10 degrees to 55°C (131°F). I then drove 2km to the vet (with the heat on) and the coolant temperature never rose above 55°C.

Now that I have data from both this and the coolant heater experiment I'll crunch some numbers and see how to use the heater most efficiently.