Quote:
Originally Posted by fiat84
Is it possible to replicate engine "load" to heat a -25C Canadian winter cold engine faster to full operating temperature by just revving the engine to around 1300-1500RPM while stationary until out of blue zone before driving?
Would it help after short drives to rev the engine to say 2500-3000RPM for a few minutes to burn off any moisture?
Most of our common suburb drives are "short" local trips and after reading various posts am trying to avoid another winter breakdown.
A few years ago had my M54 engine hydrolock CCV freeze up about three months after buying a two year lease return. Edmonton BMW Dealer Tech guy told me that it is less common in cars driven hard and he replaced the frozen CCV/hoses with the non insulated versions=$700.00. Dealer Tech did mention they had a special BMW machine to clean out the cylinders only used to speed up this common hydrolock repair even though it was not a warranty covered repair. He also used Mobil 1 oil in his BMW. Was at a dealer last month and one of the used sales guy's and his X5 hydrolocked so he added the actual "heated" hose version for $400 employee cost. No one at that dealer will say much about prevention(cleaning out or replacing CCV) and they do not publicly advise avoiding short trips.
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Revving the engine without load is not a good idea. It is the load that helps it warm up, not the rpm. The engine has to be working against a load. Revving a cold engine will just cause more wear IMO.
If your problem was a couple of years ago, and you want to avoid a future problem, I would ask them to inspect the CCV. If it is clean, then you know that your typical driving is not much of a problem. Realize that it could have taken two years of the previous owner's typical use to build up enough condensate to allow it to freeze up. On the other hand, if it is truly plugged up after two years, then cleaning it out would be advisable.
If they won't tell you not to drive on short trips, it would be because a lot of people do so, and consider that to be normal usage. They don't want the customer push-back IMO.
If you want to try and get some heat into the engine faster, and you are parking it outside at -25C, then you could always put those stick-on silicone heating pads on the oil pan and plug it in overnight. That won't prevent the condensation, but it will help the engine to warm up more quickly, and may thus help reduce condensation build-up over time by giving the engine more time to boil off the condensation.
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