avoiding cold starts

I borrowed and electricity consumption meter from the public library
and put some of the numbers I got in a file a
www.ag384bn.bravehost.com/hydro.htp including the block heater on my
car. You can find some vauge references to fuel savings using a block
heater on the Internet but no hard data. It would be nice to have.

My impression is that an engine idling over any time without a load on
it will shake itself silly but an engine with a load on it won't shake
as much. Just an unrpoven theory of mine. My manual says not to idle
more than 30 min.

Here in Ottawa where winters get pretty cold remote starters are
popular just to warm up the car so people have a nice warm car to get
into, nothing to do with the engine, everything to do with creature
comfort.

Wm Watt wrote:


> My impression is that an engine idling over any time without a load on
> it will shake itself silly but an engine with a load on it won't shake
> as much.

Uh.... no. The engine is just as balanced at idle as it is under load.

> Define cold.
> Cold to me is anything below 85F. Below 50F and I don't go outside.

On the Canadian Prairies:
85F = Hot day. Stay in the shade.
50F = Might want a sweater on.
40F = Time for the jacket.
20F = Time to change the oil. Max 5W30, maybe 0W30.
0F = Getting a little chilly. Might want to warm the engine for two or
three minutes before driving or it might cough and die.
-20F = Plug in the block heater. Put on long underwear. Wear a hat.
-40F = Some parents keep kids at home from school. The rest of us go to
work.
-50F = Can't talk outside. Your words freeze and fall to the ground,
and in the spring everyone can hear what you said about them when those
words melt.
-60F = Smoke freezes in the chimney and the furnace fumes back up into
the house. Got to climb up on the roof and poke a long stick down
through the frozen smoke, turn the heat way up and burn the rest of it
out.
-70F = Can't drive at night. The headlight beams freeze to anything
they hit and immobilize the vehicle. Have to turn off the lights to get
moving again.

Dan

Thanks for the replies. I've actually never left my car running
unattended, and i never planned to (what i meant at the end of my
original message was that i might let it run while stopping at a
destination, but not leaving it alone (like more than 10 feet away from
me).

Actually, the only time i let it run unattended was in an long-term
airport parking lot a few weeks ago, when I flew to Europe for one
week, and left the car running in the parking lot for a week, because i
heard the weather was gonna be very cold....and didn't want to start it
when i got back....didn't seem to cause any problems, though gas was
almost empty.
(just kidding)