Wanted to get the "experts" thoughts on if there is any value to warming up an engine a little before you go?

I don't know if it's old habit or what, but when I crank up the my GMC pickup in the mornings, I let the motor run sometimes as little as 15 seconds, sometimes a minute or two when she has been sitting overnight...

I just cringe when I see these folks in the hood' jump in the car and it seems like it's in drive before the engine even fires...

And validity to this?

I really wanna drive the wheels off of this one, would like to see 150-200 miles, she is at 50 now

Always best to give it a chance to lubricate the system before you start moving,and really putting a load on the engine.

I don't know if it's necessary or not, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything to let the juices start flowing before you take off down the road.

If I'm just going to work, then I let it idle for a couple of minutes before I back out and leave. If it's Saturday morning and I'm hooking up the boat, then I let the motor get good and warm before pulling off. I think letting it warm up more especially in the winter before putting that load on the motor allows more flex in the rods and crank to make the motor last longer.

Grnhead,
Sounds like a fairly new truck. With these new PCM's (computers) in trucks now days, the first thing you need to do is allow it to through all the system checks. That's when you turn the key to start and allow all the dings and bells to go off. It's not just letting you know the key's on, but it doing a system check. Then you can crank and start the engine.
Then, just allow the engine to warm up enough to get the oil pumping through the oil channels. If you have an auto tranny, it might take a couple more minutes to allow the fluid to pump through the tubing. Letting it sit idling for more than 5 minutes is just a waste of fuel, imo. I have over 107K on my truck and I never let it warmup over 3 minutes unless there's ice on the windshield...then I can't help it.

I do like Fishn_man , and my truck's only got 377,000 miles on it. (of course I'm on my second motor)--

well let mine warm up since i purchased it in 89, over 300,000 same motor still runs stong, chevy here

I let mine warm up as well. And just as Bullet Driver... I have an 89 gmc with 270,000 on the original motor. Good Truck.

This post could turn into a testimonial for the small block, I got a '94 with 206000 miles on it(original motor), and usualy let it run for 30 seconds before taking off, and I dont get on it at all untill the thermostat opens up.

matt

I was reading a cycle mag years back and they had a story about this very thing. One of the big dirtbike makers, I think it was Honda, did a test on 20 engines. The engines were broken in per specs and then ten of them were started and run right off with no warm up. The other ten were given a short warm up and then run thru the test program. This was done over and over on cold engines. The results at the end of the test were that the engines that got the short warm up suffered ten times less wear during the test. Since reading that I have always let my engines warm up a little. I usually sell my trucks when they get 300,000 miles on them. No internal parts have failed on me since.

I let mine go through the check cycle and then a make sure it's had time to get oil everywhere. For the first 1/4mi I don't do anything radical.

If I'm going to pull the boat or 5th wheel, I let it have a little longer warmup. Don't want any hard torque pulling on a cold motor.

Start it up and go, my Nissan Truck has 414,000 miles on it and it still carries me to work 140 miles a day.

Always let 'em warm up for a few minutes before towing, especially in the winter!