Engine Warmup/Cooldown
 

Hi, what is the best warmup/cooldown procedure for STI. I don't have a turbo timer but been told 5-10 minutes on cold engine before driving, then a warm down procedure with a few minutes before shutting engine off. For petrol stations shall i leave engine running also? thanks for help.

Warm your car up while driving it. You don't need to leave it ticking over on your drive - it's a Subaru not a Ferrari.
Cooldown = steady for the last couple of miles at the end of your journey.
Turbo timer = pointless on the Impreza engine due to design!

Awesome, cheers :)

Turbo timer pointless due to design??

Not that I have one but haven't heard that said before, hows that??

Just drive the F*CKING thing. Don't thrash it from cold and let it tick over for 1 min, (NOT 10!) after a hard run.

As your turbo is water cooled and with the header tank being above the turbo, due to the natural convection of water, your turbo will continue to cool even after switch off :thumb:

Ah......you learn something everyday :)

Cheers very mooch for the explanation!

:thumb:

Easy isnt it:luxhello:

Are .... ok k. Most of the people that I've chatted to have been saying leave it on tickover for about 10 min's

Ditto on that
It makes sence if the header tank is above ... Never notice that :P

Drive it with the revs low to let it warm up. When it gets there un-leash hell. Then last mile or so let it cool down by driving with the revs low.

:top:

Warming up the car properly before extending it is very important, as the oil is only offering optimal protection to the engine when up to temp. The only proper way to tell when this has happened is to get an oil temp gauge. Oil takes longer to warm than water, so you can't use the water temp gauge as an indication. I give mine 8-10 miles before using boost.

Cooling down is much less time consuming: the only thing you mustn't do is come straight off a hard drive and switch the car off immediately. Give it a minute or two to allow the circulating oil to cool the turbo first. If you've been driving off boost for the last mile or so of your journey, just switch it straight off. You don't need to be too anal about this. Making sure the car is warmed up before extending it is much more important.

car will get to running temp more quickly if it's allowed to run for 3or4 minutes before driving off-more important in winter or if its been stood for a week

but the diff and gearbox will still be cold so its no good sitting there for 5 minutes then ragging it.Jump in it and drive it straight away keeping revs to under 3k untill oil temp has reached circa 80 degrees.That way the gearbox and diffs would have also warmed up sufficiently.Driving hard on cold gearbox/diff is as bad as ragging your car from the off

I dont think anybody's talking about ragging it from the off, cold or warm
good point on the gearbox and diff:)

Sounds perfectly logical and good advice to me :thumb:

Letting a car tick over at 1k revs will not warm any car up quicker than if it was being driven...........

I do this. I have a PSi3 data monitor, and its surprising how much longer after the temperature gauge reaches temperature the PSi shows that its actually at 80 degrees. I usually find it takes about 7 or 8 miles from cold in the morning, or 3 or 4 miles in the evening when coming home.

i thought it was to allow the oil to still be circulated round the turbo untill its span down as turning the engine off would stop oil feed?:wonder: and running dry etc?

I'm not an expert but i believe the turbos are oil lubricated and water cooled so as long as you've let your turbo spin down before shut off it should be fine. As it's generally the best idea to run the last couple of miles off boost then spinning down really shouldn't be needed :)
That's my take anyway :thumb:

they just want to steal your car though :D

Even if you let your turbo spin down for 20-30 secs it can still be ridiculously hot, so if you shut off the engine the oil is no longer being ciculated around it, and can boil and caramelize, blocking the oil feed jets. So when you start up and take off in the morning even at low boost, your turbo isn't getting any/enough oil until the oil becomes hot enough to break down the old stuff thats boiled, thats when you really wreck them :nono:

try it on a cold morning when the cars been stood for a few days:)

Caremalise? Its not bleedin Creme Brule. :D

Didn't realise the turbo was water cooled. I just assumed it was oil cooled....that explains why the water is up to temp in less than mile then...which is great on a cold winter’s morning.

Its always good practice to gently warm up and cool down ANY engine - i have always done this with all my cars even the crappy 1.3s that i have had in the early days of driving.

For getting everything up to temp I always stick to below 3K RPM until the oil temp is at 90Deg and for cooling down i make sure the oil temp is back around 92-93Deg (its normal operating temp) before pulling onto the drive way and then just let it tick over whilst i gather my belongings, fit the steering lock etc which is usually around 45seconds

Ah well, sure u get my drift, no pun intended ;)

Its surprising how long oil takes to warm up when normal driving, Defi oil temp gauges help :)

Another vote for Defi's :thumb:

Dead handy for knowing when the oil is warm. :Thumb:

F**k the oil temp, i just love the start up and shut down on the Defi's! LOLOLOL