Is it better to warm the truck at a 12-1500 rpm idle for 10-15 min or to drive the truck whithout working it to much to warm it up on cold days?

 

You'll probably find this question is like anatomy. Evenones opinion will be diff. Personally I feel it needs to idle for atleast 30 sec if it is cold enough for a jacket. Then driven easily until the gauge comes off the peg.

Randy

 

Right or wrong what I do is start the engine, wait for good oil pressure, less than 5 seconds, put in gear, back out and drive under 2000rpm until up to temp.

Seems to be working so far...

 

Only problem I would have with this is my trans would act stupid. Guess cause everyting is so cold down there, it wants to hold out on me and never up shift?
I warm up for about 5 minutes this time of year (manually) with the tach at about 1100.

 

What I do is start the truck in Nuetral and give the tranny some time to get flowing...maybe 2 min tops...then drive her easy untill its up to temp or I see someone I want to smoke

 

I hit the remote start, grab lunch shoes ect ect... about 5min max. If it is cold enough the Hi Idle will work if not then idles normaly. Get in and drive but take it easy in till the truck is up to temp. I never work the truck hard like WOT or anything in till it is up to temp.

 

Ditto! seven years & 182K miles.

 

The answer depends upon where you are located, and how cold is the cold you are inquiring about. It is 5F here today and I plugged in my block heater and then ran on high idle for 10 minutes before driving.

 

better??? you'll never get a definite answer. The important part is to not work the engine hard before it is ready for it.

 

I guess a better way to ask the question is. . .
is it bad on the engine to idle for 10-15 min on high idle to warm up before I drive?

 

High Idle is better....but I limit all Idle time to 5 min.
RJ

 

you can idle for as long as you want to 5 minutes to 5 hours but you will need to adjust your oil change intervals accordingly. A co worker of mine is of the old school truck driving era and he fires his 00' and lets it idle forever he thinks fuel is cheaper then starters......with 220,000mi and 10,000 mile oil changes it seems to work for him. I idled my 95' till the heater would clear the windows before I knew about the cyl temp stuff...it still runs and starts fine even with 340,000mi. My 01' is my baby so I treat it like so I start it and let it idle at 1300ish for a few minutes and then take it easy till she is ready after all there is more to get warm then just the engine

 

I park in unheated insulated detached garage, I hit command start, open big door, idle for 1-2 minutes(unless extremely cold then hi-idle an extra 2-3 mins), then drive away. Engine will warm up faster driving it, rather than idling, but lots depends on temp, whether or not it's plugged in, if it's in a garage or not, or ice on widshield etc, no one set hard rule works for everyone, find one that works for you.