[Piwoslaw]

Mechman, I have no problems with overheating, I'm only wondering about the effects of killing an engine which is hotter than usual. Normally, you are supposed to idle for a minute before killing the engine after a "hard workout", so that everything cools off evenly to its "natural" temperature. With a hotter t-stat, grille blocks and/or engine insulation, the "natural" temp is higher, so idling won't cool it off.

Example from my car: My normal coolant temp is 78°C, but with my winter grille block it is closer to 88-90°C. The t-stat starts to open around 83°C, but the fan normally kicks in at 97°C. (When the weather gets warm enough that the temp stays above 92°C I remove the winter grille block.) So at the end of a trip the engine temp is higher than "normal", yet not high enough for the fan to come on automatically. Killing the engine @ 90-95°C on a cold day may have worse consequences than killing it @ 78°C, so my question is: Would it be healthier (lower cracking risk) for the engine if I manually forced the fan on before parking to cool the engine ~10-15°C? I am assuming that running the fan for a minute in low speed won't make a dent in engine/battery load.