Warm up time during winter

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by JCL

When manufacturers first recommended against idling an engine to warm it up, in the 1960s, pollution controls weren't on the horizon. It was better for the engine whether or not we cared about pollution.

But you need to know "the rest of the story," as the radio comentator use to say.

Back then almost all gasoline engines used carburetors, not electronic-controlled fuel injection. As a result, at idle speeds with a cold engine and the choke on, you would get a "washing" effect from the overly rich mixture of gasoline on the cylinder walls.

Obviously, that is no longer a concern with today's precise fuel injection.

So whatever the recommendation was back then, it really has no relevance to today's engines, one way or the other.