Faster engine warmup

[Grant-53]

What Frank said works for me too. If I know it is going to be cold I can throw an old blanket over the engine after I shut it off. I put a blanket over my lap and legs for extra warmth. I may try keeping a foam seat cushion inside or put a rice bag in the microwave when I am ready to leave. With my touring style fairing on my mountain bike I get up to 'operating temperature' in about half the time as in the minivan.

[Frank Lee]

I used a lap blanket when I daily drove old VW Bugs and Busses with virtually... make that no heat or defrost. I'd have to keep the scraper handy to scrape the INSIDE of the windshield. Sometimes I'd put my hand on the glass to defrost a spot. Unsafe at any speed! But I survived and didn't hit anything because of it.

[David Philips]

I have a Nissan that has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. The wheel is warm in a half mile and seat is toasty in about a mile and half. I keep the water and fan off until the temp is 2/3rds up to full warm. An annoying problem with the CVT is that it is the last thing to get warm and the engine is revvy and won't pull at low rpm's until at least 3 miles on a 25 degree day. At about 3 miles everything is getting normal and decent mileage returns on the instant mileage readout.

All this tells you it is REALLY important to avoid short trips in cold weather. The further you drive, the lower the impact on your overall mileage the startup will make. If you do four winter startups in 100 miles that will make a huge dent in your overall trip mileage. Maybe 20% drop.

Years ago I had a Saab 96 that had an upside down window shade device at the bottom front of the radiator. It was pulled up by a pull chain under the dash. I have never been able to make a device like that work on later cars. It worked great on the two stroke Saab.