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Old 06-12-2003, 03:46 PM   #8
mlambrecht82
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Fresno, CA
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That depends on a few things. One how long your car has been sitting before you start it up. If it is just over night, then there should still be plenty of oil in the bearings still, if its been a week or more, then all the oil has probably drained back down into the oil pan. The air temperature also plays a big part, when it is cold the oil gets thick, and will take longer to get to all the vital parts in your engine. But thanks to multigrade oil (like 5w-20) the viscocity of the oil is much more stable in low temperatures. In this case at 32 degrees the oil will act as a 5 weight, and at operating temperature the oil will act as a 20 weight. A 20 weight at 32 degrees would take to long to lube up the engine. When the 4.6 first came out they had a lot of problems with them because the customers were putting to thick of oil in there cars. These newer engines have very tight bearing clearances and the tick oils weren't getting pumped through the engine fast enough when it was cold. Customers would bring their cars in very upset complaining that it would run like crap when it was cold, so the technicians would just put a thinner multigrade oil in and the problem was fixed.
If you are in a warm climate, ie above 60 degrees then after driving that car a mile to the freeway the oil will be well distributed, if you are in a colder climate, like 30 degrees then I would let your car sit and warm up for atleast a minute before heading out to work.
You shouldn't have any problems, the thing that you should worry about is starting a cold engine that has sit for a few days and then revving it up as soon as it fires up to make it sound really cool to impress all your sleeping neighbors. The oil deffinately wouldn't of had time to lube everything up and you would be grinding away at all your bearings.
Just make sure that you use the recommended oil for your car, and make sure it is a multigrade.
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