What water temp should I be at before the highway?
 

I've become more and more comfortable EOC'ing on my descent down the mountain that it's created a new concern for me. I have yet to complete my lower radiator hose heater and my garage keeps my car at about 53-54F in the morning. I coast .3 miles, accelerate under power to 30mph, then shut the engine off and coast about 7-7.5 miles before I need to start the engine to merge up to highway speeds.

My question is that I'd suspect it's not a good idea to get a stone-cold 55F engine and get it up to 65mph for my merge without some degree of warm up, so when do I start my engine to start to idle up to temperature? Today I started it about 3/4 mile before the merge and just idled, which brought the operating temperature up to about 125F before the merge. That seems warm enough, but is that more than necessary, adequate, or asking for trouble with lubrication? I'm accelerating slower than normal, as I have about a mile long continuous merge lane and keeping the RPMs under 3000 (remember, this is a car with a 7800rpm redline and it actually lugs below 1700rpm).

On the plus side, I just set a new inbound economy record, consuming .42 gallons for my 26.2 mile commute or 61.9mpg according to the scangauge (before EOCing, my best was 55mpg).

This is probably a short window to do this, as the winter solstice approaches before I'm stuck idling again because of the need for headlights, but I'll likely be able to resume again in January or February if I can keep the windows from icing up.

I wouldn't worry about it. 3000 RPM at 55°F sounds fine to me, especially if you can run 0Wx motor oil.

OEM is 5w20, so I've been running synthetic 5w20 since I bought it in 2005 w/ 33k miles on it (now 130k). Think that's thin enough or is there a harm going against OEM recommendations to a 0w20 oil?

I just need another two years out of this car and I have a buyer when it's reached 180k miles... I'm hoping for a miracle and somebody will start selling a small (not compact, not mid-sized), 40+ mpg (epa highway), ideally 60+ mpg when hypermiled, manual transmission, good in snow, preferrably under $15k, ideally around $7.5k @ 1-4 years old, car that will last me 5+ years at 25k miles a year... oh, and it should be cheap to service, fun to drive, and not be as ugly as the Prius... I know, keep dreaming...

You are driving for maximum mileage and I see no problem with going to speed on a fairly cold engine. It's not like you are winding it up to anything close to max revs or power. Stay below 3500 RPM until the temp gauge has moved about halfway to normal operating temp.

Cooler oil is not a problem, with modern oils. You have plenty of pressure and lubrication almost as fast as you can let the key go back from cranking to running position.

You do want to make sure your oil filter has a check valve to keep it full of oil when the engine is off. Most of them have a rubber washer that you can see and it does that job. Just don't use the cheapest filters available since they might not have this feature.

The driving style of people who strive for economy definitely will always place less stress on the engine with lower loads and less heat stress. You do want to use a good oil that can provide a good surface film when you do restarts at much greater than designed numbers.

regards
Mech

I don't see why you need to go over 2200 rpm. That should get you to 55 mph in top gear, and why do you want to go any faster? 2200 rpm on a 55 degree engine is easy duty.

The car lugs and sputters below 1700rpm under any kind of acceleration or throttle load. Despite being a 6 speed, there's not 500rpms between gears. If I was to shift from 3rd to 4th at 2200rpm, I'd be lugging the engine at 1500-1600rpm when I arrived in 4th. Peak torque for this engine is something ridiculous, like 7100rpm. This car has zero torque at the bottom end, so even keeping it below 3k is challenging, but possible with enough attention.

I'm still not comfortable with the idea of being an impediment to traffic when most cars are doing at least the posted limit of 65mph and there's only two lanes. Besides, I'm still adjusting to 65mph. Usually I didn't bother looking at the speedo, but when I did, it was generally significantly above the PSL.

I just want to keep the engine and one piece. Given the feedback I've received, I can probably coast another half mile, start it up as I hit the on-ramp and accelerate from 40-65 comfortably before the merge lane ends, and go on about my way. I probably have one more week before the mornings are too dark and I'll need the headlights, so I better enjoy it while it lasts! It'll be late January before it's this light again and by then there's likely to be snow on the ground, frost on the windshield, and temperatures in the single digits in the morning. Uggh, I hate winters.