Posted on 01/08/2011 8:20:04 PM PST by cunning_fish
Since I have to head out for work about 6:15AM every M-F, if it is below about 35 or so—pretty common right now, I WILL idle my trusty old Trofeo, which ALWAYS starts in 2 seconds or LESS no matter how cold it gets, for about 10 mins. to get it nice and comfortable, defrosted and ready for my 35min. drive to work. In that amount of time—it is warm, thawed, and ready. It WILL drive pretty decently if I don’t preheat it—but it is NOT fun or comfortable—and there is pretty much NO heat—as the computer will NOT allow the blower to blow out cold air, until the engine warms up a bit— which is a GOOD thing I guess—(unless I press defrost—and then it goes on instantly).
Maybe you could build one using an old radial aircraft engine, that should produce alot of smoke, noise, power, and should cause any good lefty to go into Cardiac Arrest.
Our local weatherman says our records aren’t so accurate so he checked with Tallahassee and this is the coldest Winter we have ever had period. We are expecting freezing rain tomorrow night.
Like an old Corvette?
I have a pair of rebuilt matching displacement Buick V6’s, but that only gets me twelve cylinders.
Now if I had two more......
It really depends upon the model and type of engine. Diesels require some amount of warmup, even without those infernal glow plugs that take forever to warm up enough to even start the engine.
I’ve got a Subaru with the turbo 2.5. Idling to warm up is not recommended, but there is a warning sensor that remains lit, a small blue dot in the tach, to indicate that the engine is in fact still cold, and it is recommended not to rev the engine to high rpm until the engine is warm.
That engine warms up the fastest of any car I’ve ever owned, though, and the heat is actually hot enough to hurt coming out of the dash vents when turned all the way up to 85, it feels like a blow dryer on high. Heated seats, too, great cold weather car with all wheel drive.
For the price of a Corvette with F.I. AND old enough to get my interest, I could buy a pretty decent Ferrari.
One with multiple carburetors. ;-)
Those were a real winner with the CRT computer screen in the dash. When they go you are done.
This is my favorite Olds right now.
It has the stock Ralleye's painted factory body color and factory 455 with dual exhaust. It is Saturn Gold and identical but mine has a roof rack too.
Does it sigh or mutter, lol?
But it sure makes it nice when the car is all warm when you get in. I’ll spend a quarter in gas for that.
Yeah yeah yeah...
Carburetors are so....drum brakes, inner tubes, 6 volt, and cast iron rings.
They’re just like point/condenser ignition with Champion spark plugs or babbet poured rods.
In fact, buggy whips are superior to carburetors.
You think something so simple would be easy to understand...
Also, fogged up windows are a road hazard.
I warm my van up for a good 15-20 minutes in the morning when below 20 degrees. Especially when there is snow or ice on it ( my wife gets the garage...). I hate scraping off the windows, so I just start it up, remove the key and leave it running ( which it is set up to do ) , then “lock the door to the van” and just go back inside the house.
When its warmed enough to melt off the windows I just go back out , unlock the door and then head to work.
By the way, I live in a high crime area and have never had a problem.
Yep! I live in North Dakota. We use them. We're south of Canada.
Well for me...it HAS been the truth!! I had one, a ‘92,like the one in your pix. Now, it is an ‘89 and BOTH had the VIC screen. I LOVE it—it was SO far ahead of it’s time in ‘89—as was the rest of the car. And it still looks “modern” over 20 years later!! I DO have a spare VIC—and since I am a flat—panel tech by trade, I would have little problem repairing the Sony Trinitron VIC screen. The most common problem is a loss of vertical sweep—often bad solder joints, and sometimes capacitors—in the vertical out ckt. causes that.
Besides that—the trofeo is a wonderful car. Decent on power, mileage and VERY reliable. Only ONE time in 2 years now that I have owned it, did it let me down, a crank sensor—and it was quite close to home, and an under $200 fix.It is GREAT to drive in the bad weather—and right now—I would trust it to go about anywhere!! I see MANY MUCH NEWER cars off of the road, dead, EVERY morning when I drive to work, and those of the other employees too. Need a paint job BAD by now—but that is coming soon.
Heard a story on the radio. One of the car companies is working on technology to shut off the car at stoplights...and they encouraged listeners to do that now, so we’ll be used to it by the time it becomes automatic. You can’t make this stuff up.
It is called “start stop technology” and it is most definitely going to be common. I only hope they get it right before it becomes commonplace.
Otherwise I can see a lot of cars stuck at intersections when they don’t restart.
I found all the references to block heaters to be stupid. They require at least the same energy as letting your engine warm up your car. Maybe even more because they are so slow, and all the while much of the energy over a 2 hours period is being emitted into the outside air. Your engine can do the same thing in 10 minutes.
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