Because the average driver doesn't do short drive cycles like the original poster. Running hotter plugs with longer drive cycles will prematurely wear the plugs and will also produce detonation/pre-ignition along with associated piston damage.

 

Ohh... I am glad you cleared that up, since the NGK document didn't mention long drive cycles being a factor.
So the OP can solve his warm-up problem with different plugs, but he will damage his engine if he ever decides to take it on a long trip?

 

Occasionally no, he can put 93 octane fuel in to counteract the detonation for those once in a while trips. But if his driving habits change to longer drive cycles, then he should definitely switch the plugs back to the OEM heat range.

 

my expy stays outside...tonight its about -10 we dont plug it in. i dont know about you but i have a remote start on the truck so i never have to get into a cold truck. i refuse lol so this may be somthing to look into for colder weather.

 

It's all in the owner's manual. Ford recommends a very minimal warm up time on all gasoline engines.

I let mine run only until the high idle kicks down then she goes in drive and is driven very gingerly until she begins to warm up.

When you warm your engine, the transmission doesn't get the same benefit. So, you have a warm engine and you take off like a bat out of hell on a 10 degree morning and your turning over an ice cold transmission. That may not actually hurt the transmission but it kind of bothers me. So in my mind, if you start off with a cold engine and cold transmission, they both get to warm up together.

 

More funny stuff alloro So how much of the 10% temp increase is absorbed by the cylinder walls in the fraction of a second it spends in there? Funny how the exhaust temps remain near 1000*F and your coolant never gets anywhere near that. I certainly did not make it up, there is more heat energy released through the exhaust than any other outlet on an internal combustion engine.

Of course it makes a difference, right up to the point where you burn up the motor. Is it going to make a difference in warm up times? No, just one reason why is because at idle there is very little fuel used and very little heat produced. Under load you will see increased combustion temps but you will not overheat the coolant because most of the heat, AGAIN, is transfered out via the exhaust.

If you don't think the bulk of the heat leaves through the exhaust try this little trick. Warm up your truck and with one hand grab a radiator hose, with the other grab an exhaust manifold, you tell me where the heat is.

 

This is what you would consider good advice? When you initially suggested this to the OP did you take the time to warn him of the damage that could occur?

Now you want to argue the merits of a hotter plug? Can you see out of the hole still, or is it starting to smell like Chinese food yet?

 

This is mostly true, but keep in mind that the fluid as it passes through the tranny cooler built into the radiator will absorb some of the heat from the coolant and transfer it back into the tranny. This will not warm up the tranny as fast as the engine warms up, but it helps some.

 

Blah, blah, blah, nice try at twisting the facts. The reason the radiator hose isn't as hot as the exhaust is because there is a means in place to remove excess heat from the coolant (the radiator). Whereas the exhaust has nothing to remove the heat from it other than convection. Take your belt off the water pump and run the engine, then tell me how cool that radiator hose remains.

 

Yes I do consider saying, "the recommendation is usually to go to the next higher heat range of spark plug" to be good advice. I didn't tell him to run out and do it, I told him the usual recommended course of action. If he wanted to pursue it further he would've asked more questions, and at that point I would've given him the additional information.

 

Are you arguing with me about whether or not the exhaust system expells more heat than the cooling system?

 

That whole thing just makes me laugh. I considered parsing it but, my simple response is YAH, RIGHT

 

Not at all, I agree there is more heat going out of the exhaust over what is absorbed by the cooling system, but that isn't what this is all about. You claimed that all of the additional heat generated by running hotter plugs goes out the exhaust, and none of it caused the engine to warm up any faster.

 

Of course it is, because that's all you've got!

 

alloro :-duel 1 Greenie

The rest of us

stop it already!