View Single Post
  #21  
Old 02-10-2026, 12:35 AM
andrewwynn's Avatar
andrewwynn andrewwynn is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Racine, WI
Posts: 12,582
andrewwynn will become famous soon enoughandrewwynn will become famous soon enough
Wife's F10 535 has shutters.

Today i did an experiment with my N55 E70;

Start and idle in a car port 10-15 min. before drive to town ≈ 20 min. mountain roads so about 400' up and 300' down on the trip there, opposite on return.

DME was requesting 109C from the engine but it never got over 82. It was about 5F=-15 c ambient.

Per usual i had the heat off until the engine hit 70c but that was within a mile since it warmed for 12-15 min. (only was ECT 42 i think).

So i covered 2/3 of the radiator with bubble wrap for the return trip. Engine temp was at 102c within 10 min.

(Normal to avg about 100 due to the hills vs. flat roads where it'll be 106-108)

In the case of N55, i don't believe the engine is proper running below maybe 85c so i encourage it to have the ability to get the temps at least close to operating temps.

If the newer cars know to shut off the airflow to the radiator, seems pretty common sense to do the same albeit manually with the identical motor. (Wife's F10, my E70 both have N55)

I wondered why her car warmed up so much faster even if the heater is on. It does run the coolant pump slower but i think that's because I have more internal volume and have digital climate back seat.

If i had a diesel i would do the same as i do with gas especially because they are so efficient they just don't heat up when ambient is low.

Code:
The normal coolant temperature range for the BMW M57 engine is typically between 80°C to 112°C (176°F to 234°F), with the thermostat generally opening around 105°C (221°F) during normal operation.
If the tstat opens 105 i would be wanting to see numbers between 90-100 by ten minutes into a drive even if ambient is -15c.

Some people like to keep there engines cold there's a whole train of thought that heat kills and keep it cold as possible. I'm ok with the DME temp management though like the oil being too low psi, i would be ok with the top temp being 105 v 109.


–awr–

Using Tapatalk VIP on iPhone
__________________
2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)
Reply With Quote

Sponsored Links