When I go to school in the mornings I need to take the highway which is a few block from my home and by the time I get to the entrance ramp my temp gauge show between the 40 and the 80 so I know the engine is not warmed up yet totally despite me waitng in the driveway to warm up for about 5, 6 mins. I try to not pust the engine when getting on due to the fact that its not warmed up totally but, would I still be doing any damage to it by going on the highway right away and it not warmed up to par?

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

I have read that warming the car up in cold weather can actually do more long term harm than good. When starting in cold weather you want to get the engine under load as soon as possible. That being said you should take it easy until operating temp is reached - watch the revs.

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Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired

Don't let it idle too long.

Driving the car warms the oil the fastest. Don't rev the piss out of it. But, don't lug it either.

I use a block heater to make sure the engine is as warm as possible before firing, and then drive away once the idle drops down from cold-start level. Takes about 1 minute tops in the coldest weather.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

waiting for the idle to drop from cold start level on my car would take about 10 mins if u wait for it by idling!!

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

i have access to a low-traffic warm-up route of about 1km in length, through which I drive in 2nd gear below 2000rpm.

this, before i enter a main road where cars are are speeding by and I have to merge at high speed.

When I lived up north I had block heaters in all my diesels. Relatively cheap to install. The tradeoff is the cost of electricity for longer engine life. On the W115s the water temp gauge would be off the peg before the engine was even started! Great feeling.

If you're really concerned, get an oil temp gauge and/or use synthetic oil. I think oil takes longer than coolant to get to operating temp. Oil temp when the coolant temp gauge reads 80C is cooler than at the end of a 100 mile trip with the temp gauge reading 80C.

Sixto
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

The theory is that since the block/head are of a different material than the gasket, they have different thermal expansion characteristics. On an inline-6 engine, this difference in expansion characteristics is more pronounced than in a V-6, because the inline-6 block is longer. As such, you hear about head gasket failures often on inline-sixes.

at least, that's what i've read ...

well I do use synthetic. LOL i watch my neigbour in her new Jeep grand cherokee and every cold morning when she is in a rush she just jumps in the car and FLOORS it to work. Its a V8 so maybe its stronger but its still an ordinary engine. Will she do any harm ? The car is a 2000 and has 60 000 km on it and i doubt it has synthetic.

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

My father-in-law managed to rack up 160K miles in his Lumina minivan thus far doing the same thing -- get int he car, floor the pedal, turn the key. Just about everything in the car doesn't work except the motor and transmission. Go figure.

Sixto
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

Is it the GM 3.8L V-6? It's one damn tough engine. That said, come back when the engine has 350K on 'er. Our 190E 2.6 has 340,000 on it, and the engine burns little oil and is tight and strong. I figure another 150-200K at least left on the little six.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

It's the smaller V6. 3.1, I think.

Congratulations on your mileage.

Compared to the Lumina, my 300SE is babied and it uses a heck of a lot more oil with 150K miles on the clock.

Sixto
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD