SHORT TRIPS? FAST WARM UPS? MPG?

[NoD~]

I used to block heat every single morning, but the gains aren't that great once you get out of winter. You can have a toasty engine, but say your wheel bearings and transmission... anything else that rotates and generates heat, is still going to be cold. You can run a block heater, plus perhaps an oil pan and/or transmission heater, but the time and energy it takes may not be worth the tiny gains you'll get.

Frankly, more and more reason to go full electric. I keep looking at my Insight as a great candidate... just waiting for that smug little 1.0L to explode.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Phase

I have an Ioniq with active grill shutters. In the winter it closes them automatically. So no point in a grill block for me

And I was specifically talking about faster warm up times even in summer. Hoping next year I can move out of my apartment and get a place that’ll allow me to plug in a heat block for winter time

Does the Ioniq shutters block the entire front grill? Cars I've seen that have active shutters still have open areas.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Daox

Does the Ioniq shutters block the entire front grill? Cars I've seen that have active shutters still have open areas.

The whole area except one little tiny one inch area thing at the very very bottom that I don’t know what it’s for

[Piwoslaw]

One more thing to quicken engine warmup are coolant heaters that run on glowplugs. For example, from a Citroen Xsara:


The glowplugs use your 12v electrics to heat the coolant while you drive. Also these 50-150 watts put an additional load on your engine, on 1 hand warming it up even faster, on the other hand increasing the risk of draining your battery if you do it constantly on short trips.

I found these two old threads:
glow plug based coolant heater
Engine suplementary heating - Reduced comsumption/emissions/interior heating

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

The glowplugs use your 12v electrics to heat the coolant while you drive. Also these 50-150 watts put an additional load on your engine, on 1 hand warming it up even faster, on the other hand increasing the risk of draining your battery if you do it constantly on short trips.

I guess a full winterization wouldn't rely solely on a glowplug-based heater, so it might also require other approaches. Electric fan if the vehicle was fitted with a mechanical one instead, some sort of grille block being also desirable, maybe a higher-capacity battery such as those Optima ones which are often pointed out as having both a higher energy density and suitability to harsher environmental conditions.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Originally Posted by Phase

So everyone knows that short trips with the engine cold give you horrible mpgs...

Heck in my ioniq today, a 5 mile short trip to get groceries and back with ''hypermiling'' netted me 29mpg. and its a HYBRID! obviously this was because the engine was cold and none of the fluids or parts were warmed up and at the best operating temp...

IS THERE A WAY to speed up this warming up cycle or get better gas mileage for shorter trips? would a winter heat block still help the engine warm up during hot summer months? does parking in the sun help the engine warm up faster? what other things or '' hacks'' can someone do to get better short trip driving fuel economy?

Bicycles exist.
No warmup, no fuel consumption.
If you're unfit or lazy, E-bikes are also a thing.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

Bicycles exist.
No warmup, no fuel consumption.
If you're unfit or lazy, E-bikes are also a thing.

it was cold and clearly you havent seen how crazy oregon drivers drive. especially with legal weed and all drugs decriminilized, including meth, cocaine, and heroine. there are bike deaths almost every day here in the state. id rather jog on a side walk than ride a bike on public american roads

[Ecky]

I tried biking to work in Vermont. When the wind is coming over the lake, gusting at 40mph+, with a wind chill in the -30's, it's a tough ride. Nevermind the ice, and the other drivers.

Believe it or not, I really tried.

[Drifter]

Bikes are allowed on sidewalks in Portland except for the downtown core (SW Jefferson Street, Front Avenue, NW Hoyt Street and 13th Avenue). If it is like California, I imagine bike thefts are a big problem so you'd want a cheap beater with bolt-on seat post (not quick release) and a decent lock running through the frame and both wheels. And if its like here, be prepared to get the stink eye in most grocery stores when you walk in with a backpack.


In the US, there's a motor vehicle fatality an average of once every ~67 million miles driven. Bike miles aren't tracked as accurately, but 1250 people died in 2020 in an estimated 2.3 billion rides. If the average ride was 5 miles long, that would be a death every ~9 million miles. So riding a bike is at least 7 times as deadly as driving a car.

It is probably even more deadly since there are more passengers in cars than bikes and many of the vehicle fatalities were pedestrians, cyclists, and unbelted passengers...

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Drifter

In the US, there a motor vehicle fatality an average of once every ~67 million miles driven. Bike miles aren't tracked as accurately, but 1250 people died in 2020 in an estimated 2.3 billion rides. If the average ride was 5 miles long, that would be a death every ~9 million miles. So riding a bike is at least 7 times as deadly as driving a car.

To be fair, people travel far greater numbers of miles in cars. Time for time, bikes look a lot better.