Morning pre-heat

[metromizer]

Like a lot of us, I park my car in the driveway every night. Granted I'm a little spoiled compared to my friends who live "up nordt' " or in the mid-west, but I like a warm car in the am, and want my Metro to get out of 'cold start mode' asap for better FE.

A couple weeks ago, I started heating the interior of my Metro with a small 110v thermostat controlled space heater that is on a timer. I like it so much, this weekend I went the next step, adding a 110v Kat's in-line coolant heater <thanks to Johnny Mullet for the pics and nice write up>.

The space heater system:
It's nothing fancy, just stuff from Home Depot, a cheapie under-desk-type space heater w/fan and internal thermostat, and a medium duty outdoor Christmas lights timer rated at 15a. I set the outdoor timer to kick on at 4am, I am out the door at 5:30, and the interior is nice and cozy at about 65 deg F when I get in, and windows are defrosted before I even start the car. When I leave the driveway, I just move the air intake selector to recirculate, and output air selector to defrost. That draws the semi-heated air from the interior space and blows it onto the windsheild. By the time the pre-heated interior air has cooled, my engine coolant and heater core are warmed up and operating, just as I enter the freeway.

Aside from comfort and better FE is safety. I've been commuting for 28 years, and have had several close call as a result of foggy windows while driving through my neighborhood. Running the car in the driveway is no good for FE and the air quality. Wiping down the windows leaves them spotty and glare glare during the afternoon drive home. Even though it's been down in the low 40's to high 30's most mornings, I don't run my car to warm it up anymore, don't need to wipe my windows, don't need a jacket either.

[MetroMPG]

I'm a big fan of prewarming the interior as well, and do the same thing you do. Makes for a more comfortable, safer & efficient drive (in order of importance ).

[metromizer]

I've had the 850w al tank Kat's heater in place for 10 days now, I just wired a mre permanent 110v cord into the interior. I wired them into one common plug that stows in the grill for convieience. I'm really happy with this system, it was 28deg. F a couple mornings.When I climbed into the car, inside was toasty-warm, the windows were frost-free, no need to warm the engine since the gage was registering partially warm already.

Hit the starter, let it run for 30 seconds, start driving

[MazdaMatt]

Hehe... 28F... I'll still go out in my slippers and pj's to make a quick run to the store in the morning in that kind of weather

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted by MazdaMatt

Hehe... 28F... I'll still go out in my slippers and pj's to make a quick run to the store in the morning in that kind of weather

That's what I was going to say, 28F is "toasty warm" up here.
How long do you preheat the car? We use block heaters set for about an hour before "launch" which get the block up to 80-100F.
Ian

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by metromizer

Hit the starter, let it run for 30 seconds, start driving

Hit the starter, start driving!

There, fixed it for ya.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by metromizer

Aside from comfort and better FE is safety. I've been commuting for 28 years, and have had several close call as a result of foggy windows while driving through my neighborhood. Running the car in the driveway is no good for FE and the air quality. Wiping down the windows leaves them spotty and glare glare during the afternoon drive home. Even though it's been down in the low 40's to high 30's most mornings, I don't run my car to warm it up anymore, don't need to wipe my windows, don't need a jacket either.

And depending on where you live, you won't have to worry about your car getting stolen while it warms up. I don't know where you live in NorCal, but Stockton/Manteca/Modesto have the highest auto theft rates in California, because people leave them idling unattended in the driveway to warm up, and thieves have quick access to three major freeways of escape.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Hit the starter, start driving!

There, fixed it for ya.

I let it run for about 15 seconds, usually.. the time it takes to put it in gear, drop the parking brake, and get my seat belt on. This is typically long enough that the idle will smooth out.

That's the only thing I concern myself with, that the idle smooths out. Once the engine is running smoothly, I say it's good to go.

I've had people yell at me several times for doing stuff like this, but I always take used cars, that have over 150k on them, put another 60-70k+ on them, and still don't have problems.

Maintenance is alot more important than warming your engine... besides, idling at low vacuum for extended pds is supposed to be really bad for your engine anyway.

[KJSatz]

Well I think ideally you'd do the seatbelt and parking brake before turning it over.

[Christ]

It's a timing thing. Regardless of what order you do things in, it's not a good idea to rev your engine immediately after starting it, especially when it's cold.

Most of the people I know, don't slip-start their cars, when driving, therefore, they're going to rev the engine up a bit to take off.

Since it takes about 15 seconds to release the e-brake, put the car in gear, and put my seatbelt (4 point harness) on, I use those things to stop me from attempting to take off without giving the engine a chance to smooth out.

I can understand the need to save fuel by performing those actions before starting, but regardless of when you do them, chances are, you're still going to sit with the engine on for a few seconds anyway.