Have you ever noticed how your engine ‘goes’ a bit better when it’s warmed up? Well, there’s a few things at work but the easiest to explain here is the principle of how the oil lubricates the engine. Cold oil is not very viscous, but as it warms it gets to all areas of the engine and provides lovely lubrication for everything to run smoothly. This means all your pumps, pistons and cams operate properly!
One thing to remember is that not only the engine runs better warm – most of the rest of the car does. Brakes can be ‘grippy’ when cold, tyres can be less responsive (that’s why racing cars will have a zig-zagging warmup lap) and of course turbos etc all want to be warmed up to get to optimal operating temperature.
I guess I’m the opposite of my car. I work better colder. How about you? Maybe after reading this you’ll let your engine warm up properly in future, though I wouldn’t recommend zigzagging for the tyres on a public road. For those interested, the engine in the picture is an Audi RS4 V8 FSI. It has 32 valves and 4163cc of displacement. It powers the car from 0-6.2 in a hugely quick 4.7 seconds.
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