slow to warm up?

[WmWatt]

Its cold here in Ottawa. It may be imagination but my carburetted '89 seems to be taking a long time to warm up. Left the bike shop at 5:30 this evening and got home at 5:45 but the temp guage hadn't reached normal running temp. The heater and defroster were working on the drive home. Raised the hood and felt the radiator hoses: top warm, bottom stone cold. Sat in the car and let the engine idle 5 more minutes before the guage reached normal temp. Raised the hood and the bottom rad hose was warm. Hence the thermostat seems to be opening okay, and is not stuck open. Is this about the time it takes the engine to warm up in sub-zero weather? After 20 years with this car you'd think I'd know but it seems to me it was reaching normal temp about half way home before this past week. I don't want to damage the engine or get bad gas milage by running it cold. Thanks.

[Mike McKown]

I have two Festivas I currently drive. One of them, I can start up and without any warm-up, drive a half mile down the road and the heater is putting out warm enough air to turn the blower on. The other car, you have to drive it about three miles to get the same temp out of the heater.

Both have the two stage thermostats. That would be in temps in the single digits.

I suspect that "normal" operation, as new would be like my first example. The water pump can circulate heated water through the heater and never go through the thermostat due to the small by-pass hose behind the thermostat.

[TominMO]

Do you have a 195-degree thermostat? Have you put cardboard in front of the radiator? Or blocked off the grill entirely? These should help a lot.

Edit: might also try some radiator flush, for the rad and heater core.

[WmWatt]

Thanks. How would blocking off the rad help before the thermostat opens and water begins circulating through the rad?

[Fordverde]

it will decrease the air flow to the engine comparment which translades in to a less time for the engine to warm up

[TominMO]

it will decrease the air flow to the engine comparment which translades in to a less time for the engine to warm up

And give the engine a fighting chance to make full temp, without the cold air keeping the temp down. Note that a lot of air gets in on the pass. side of the grill, which is not blocked by the radiator. This also cools off the motor. I would block the grill entirely when it gets well below freezing. And let it warm up while idling, before the drive home.

[bhazard]

This worked...lol

[big_ty2003]

new body kit? :laughing3:

[Mike McKown]

Thanks. How would blocking off the rad help before the thermostat opens and water begins circulating through the rad?

In my opinion, blocking off air to the radiator will not speed warm-up of the engine if you have the proper two stage thermostat in the engine. I believe this would be the case if the car wasn't moving thorugh the air stream.

The car that heats really quickly in the example above does have AC on it so it's conceivable the condenser could be blocking cold air flowing over and cooling the engine.

The car that heats slowly does not have AC. I tried cardboard over the radiator on that one. Didn't help. Maybe I should have tried to cover the whole grill opening as suggested?

[TominMO]

In my opinion, blocking off air to the radiator will not speed warm-up of the engine if you have the proper two stage thermostat in the engine. I believe this would be the case if the car wasn't moving thorugh the air stream.

The car that heats really quickly in the example above does have AC on it so it's conceivable the condenser could be blocking cold air flowing over and cooling the engine.

The car that heats slowly does not have AC. I tried cardboard over the radiator on that one. Didn't help. Maybe I should have tried to cover the whole grill opening as suggested?

If the car is not moving and there is no wind over the radiator, then of course there is no difference. The cardboard is for when the car is moving and it is very cold outside; same with covering the whole grill.

[Mike McKown]

If the car is not moving and there is no wind over the radiator, then of course there is no difference. The cardboard is for when the car is moving and it is very cold outside; same with covering the whole grill.

Maybe it wasn't obvious but I was kind of agreeing with you.

[TominMO]

Maybe it wasn't obvious but I was kind of agreeing with you.

Thought so, but wasn't sure, so thought I'd make the point again.

[WmWatt]

Thanks. I appeared normal yesterday when the ambient temperature wasn't so cold. I'll keep an eye on it and cut out a piece of cardboard to try if it gets cold again.

[batstiva]

This worked...lol

Duct tape?? I'd be a little worried about completely blocking air flow from the front.

[Pu241]

Duct tape?? I'd be a little worried about completely blocking air flow from the front.

I thought the same thing!
But with the electric fan behind the radiator and the "air gap" between the grill block off and front of the radiator the fan can pull air through the radiator and dump the heat.
At least at these temps and just so long as he doesn't have cardboard siting up against the front of the radiator.
I've got a grill block off and at these temps have not noticed an increase in radiator fan running.
Actually, I don't know if it has been on at all since before winter began.
My next step is to block off the lower grill like bhazard has, but without the air dam. His design is better than what I have in mind, but just don't have access to a heated shop for the time it would take to do something more than that.
My only concern is when/if spring gets here, is at what temp does it make sense to open up the grill block and how much to open it up.
Just need to monitor temp and fan cycling.