How long does your 4.6 take to warm up?

[Jbauer]

Is it all V8s that take a while to warm up or something?
My moms car warms up in like 2 minutes of driving, my friends focus is crazy, his warms up like 15 seconds of driving..
My car.. it takes like 3 miles till it even moves from C. Even when i drive my car to the track, at like 100 degree weather, my temp is still slightly below half. at the absolute hottest, it may get to a little tad bit below half.
I was going to go to napa and get one of their 'superstats', i think my car may be over cooling. The car has almost 90k miles, and when i got it about a year ago the coolant was pretty nasty, so i'm not sure if the thermostat has ever been changed.

 

[98COBRA281]

mine takes a while too, during the winter, about 50 degree mornings, i could drive all the way to school, about 4 1/2 miles, and it wouldnt warm up all the way

 

[Mustang5L5]

Do you mean for the needle to be pointing in the middle? I dunno, about 5-10 mins of driving...even in the summer.



The heat works right away though. It could be 20 degrees outside, if i start driving and then turn the heat on about 5 blocks from home, it will already be blowing slightly warm

 

[BurningRubber]

Takes a long time for mine also.

On a summer night when I am usually leaving work it will be 6-7 miles before its warmed up.

Heat does come on quick though, even in winter.

 

[Wolvrin704]

Would it have anything to do with the thermostat? For example one car has a 140 thermostat compared to another one having a 180?

Besdies most of these gauges are dummy gauges and don't give anywhere near an exact reading, more like an on/off as I recall.

 

[02nightmaregt]

I usually start mine up and let it run for a few minutes before i even drive it. I don't like driving it right after i start it. It does usually take a little while though

 

[Jbauer]

well thats not cool. I already bought a 195* thermostat.
I'll just drop it in anyway.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Would it have anything to do with the thermostat? For example one car has a 140 thermostat compared to another one having a 180?

No. The stock tstat is 192 degrees and thae coolant won't begin to circulate until the tstat opens.


The reason why the engine takes so long is because aluminum headed engines tend to take longer to warm up then iron headed engines. The AL acts like a big heat sink absorbing most of the heat in the first few minutes.

It doesn't mean anything is wrong with the car. It's just simple physics

 

[Jbauer]

Right, but the thermostats primary function is to prevent the car from over cooling itself. The car to me anyway, seems to run really cool.
too late for a return now anyway

 

[Mustang5L5]

The stock gauge is pretty innacurate. It's really just an idiot gauge.

 

[MyBloodRunsBlue]

mine usually takes around 10-15 minutes from a cold start to get fully warmed up

 

[Ryan441]

i have no thermostat in mine and it does take about 10-15mins to warm up but when i does it hits right in the middle maybe even a little past the middle

 

[Mustang5L5]

Why aren't you running a t-stat?

 

[Jbauer]

x2, lol, y arent you running a stat? trying to get more flow or something?

 

[Ryan441]

bc i blew it up the first time over heating it...and i cant find the one that came out of the car. it runs cooler than it did before but not as cool as it should be

 

[Mustang5L5]

You are prob harming your engine more than doing it any good. Get a stock 190 t-stat in there and address your cooling prob rather than band-aiding it up

 

[streethorse]

Your t stat can be stuck in the open position. In the winter you can
only get warm air from your heater when that happens.

 

[2000GTdriver]

About 5 minutes summer, 10 minutes winter.

 

[mustang50v8]

my 04 GT used to take about 5-10 minutes before the vents would blow warm air in the winter. and my 94 V6 was the same way.


i think your car is normal.

 

[mtrsprt]

It's a V8, there's alot of material to warm up. Cooling systems are larger than your avg 4-6 cyl vehicle...