It's snowing here etc etc. And its Getting down to -4F. That -20C. At night, Usually -15C In the morning.

It take my car a long time to Get down to normal Idle and for the car the warm up to begin to get heat out.
About 5~ minutes to get to normal idle
And about 7 - 10~min to get heat comming from the vents.

It's kinda annoying waiting 5 mins after school 4 it to warm up.
Cause if I dont let it warm up it will idle and spin on the snow lol.
Is there any way to get my car to warm up faster?
thanks

 

Only thing I could think of is to leave your heater off for a while--turn the "temp control" to the cold position. This way, the heater diverter valve will bypass the heater core. As the heater core is basically a small radiator (does almost exactly what your big radiator does, except the heat is blown through your vents), when you have coolant flowing through it, you're basically giving your car *more* cooling power than if you left it off. So, if you turn your heater off and set the temp to cold, you take that extra cooling power away, thereby allowing your engine to warm-up quicker.

 

Man I feel dumb for suggesting this.
On know on my 2.8 Oldsmoblie, if I let it warm up for a minute then gave it a quick shot of gas while in park, it would drop back to normal idle. Then I could pull away. (I know it sounds like a carb Idea, but this was an FI car)

My car firebird never seem to have its cold idle kick in when I had it, cause I noticed my car and yours look pretty much identical, otherwise I would probably have a better idea of what to do.

 

have you installed a block heater yet?

 

........... and whut is that lol?

 

Block heaters..option for northern cars. Does just what it's named I believe.. It was a really cheap option from the factory for the most part I believe so I assume you could pick one up for not too much money..

 

I doubt that a block heater would do much. They are only designed to keep the coolant from freezing in extreme cold temperatures and cracking the block. Another thing about the block heaters I've seen is that you need an ac outlet to plug them into. So if the parking lot doesn't have outlets then your back to where you started. I would definitely try not turning on the heater until the car has warmed up. You may freeze your azz off in the mean time but the car might warm up faster. Just my .02.

 

Yeah..when it gets cold here I never run the heater til the engine is fully warm...seems to help it out a little.

 

Yep i got a block heater srry for being so stupid lol.
But I keep my car int he garage at night which is almost pointless cause my dad turns the heat all the way down.
But at school there r no plug ins.
Heh,
I'll tyr that heater thing from now one. Sometimes it gets to -45 in the winter here, thats prolly -18F I am guessing maybe colder?

 

block heaters willalso help the coolant heat up faster, thus less amount of time needed to wait for heater to heat up. I spent 2 yrs in Minot, ND. Coldest it got up there whe I was there was -45f w/wind chill of -75f. and the locals said it was a mild winter

 

try holding the RPMs at 2-3000 for a min or two.

stick some carbboard in front of the raidator.

Try floating your E-brake when needed, it just slow the back tires down.

leave your car in first so it cant spin and shift.


I really enjoy having a stick when winter comes around.

 

LOL I was going to say... you live in Saskachewan & don't know waht an engine block heater is? J/K

I lived in Alberta for 6 months durring the winter, it was kind of weird going to the mall (West Edmonton IIRC) & having an electrical outlet infront of every parking stall.... no such thing in BC

 

when I was in Minot, we'd go to the mall for about 2-3 hrs, I just let the cars idle out inthe parking lot. no outlets to plug into, & not much worry about people steeling cars. also made sure they were nice & warm when we got back in them

 

Sancho, the heater diverter valve started in '87, so his '86 won't have it- but it's still a good idea to leave the blower motor off.

Mike, when's the last time you had the coolant system flushed, or, at least, the coolant changed? Old coolant, and/or crap floating around inside the block, will reduce the transfer of heat from the engine to the coolant.

Your thermostat might also be stuck, too. I like Gumby's idea of the cardboard over the radiator. I used to do that when I'd leave my 160 degree thermo in over the winter- now, I take it back out and throw the 195 back in. Just keep that piece of cardboard in mind if you get stuck in traffic and your car heats up quick... don't want anything catching fire under there, or blowing a head gasket because the electric fan couldn't pull enough air through the radiator!!