Ive noticed that I can easily break loose in first at 4K rpm when my engine is juuust getting warm- like about after running for 1 min. I dont think its cold tires either...
So after fully warming up the engine it definately does not seem to break loose as easy.. so whats the deal? Do colder engines produce more power? It certainly seems so...
This would impact the way I would do my first drag run... try to keep the engine as cold as possible before tearing it up!!

So has anyone noticed this too? Am I off base here?

 

Running a cold engine hard is really bad

 

very very bad

 

For ideal performance, you want the heads/block,exhaust hot and the intake manifold and intake system cold. That's when you'll be the quickest. With temps in the single digits and teens, my car doesn't seem to run especially hard until I've been driving it for 20 minutes+ and the heads have completely warmed. When it's in the 40s-50s is when my car feels the strongest.


Dave

 

Yea, what would be nice is if someone had a functional hood scoop to cool the manifold in the sub-freezing temps. Talk about cold manifold at 30+mph

 

my car spins the tires no matter what in 1st, i mean boil the suckers.

 

So much for running hard on cool engine...

 

yea i notice that also, i can burn out alot better then when warmed up but it is bad for your car. yea a scoop would work but the manifold is warm when running at the warmed up temperature of the motor, because of all the cold air my cr is taking up with the cai and the custom made ram air pipe, but that might be just on my car, maybe some of you other guys can't even touch ur manifold sence its soo hot but not mine.

 

What kinda tires and is that in summer too?

 

well last spring i got new tires and they lasted me throught the summer untill october, and they are bald now, the look like slicks. and i could do a preaty good burn out no matter how hot it is.

 

That's why the intake manifold spacer thingies seem like such a good idea. They allow less heat to be transferred from the heads to the intake manifold so there's less of the heat-soak effect. I know there was a thread about this a lil while back but I can't search. Would a donating member do the honors??

 

yeah, i kinda notice it too, when i pull out of my drive way in the mourning, and it's still cold, it seems to just cut loose. i know it's bad for the engine, and i go easy on it, but i have to merge onto the highway after about 2 min, and usually there are some big trucks i have to beat.

 

its easier to spin out because your tires are cold



do a quick burnout then see what happens

 

even when warm, if i floor my car in first i can break tirse and mine are very new, i'm saying if i'm doing a very low roll, like before stalling and just mash the gas, tires are slipping

 

Ok, all you who break loose easily- IM JEALOUS!!



I mean WTF I got all these mods and I can only break loose when my engine is cold? That bites! People with Automatics are breaking loose anytime they want?

Ok, I gotta rationalize it thusly to save myself alot of grief.

I got some super sticky @ss tires.
I dont get to feel the POWAH of driving in very cold weather.
I need a aftermarket clutch and flywheel.
My ECU is coming tomorrow

No wonder it is difficult to rip em loose most of the time. Sheez.

There- I feel a little better now. Just a little.

 

I can break loose in 2nd just by punching it....and thats after the car completly warms up after a 20 minute drive with relativly new tires. And no its not the ice around here .....But burning out is a waste of tires and its not to healthy for you driveterrain/clutch

 

motors are meant to be destroyed. who cares if you run it hard when its cold, its just a motor.

 

i can chirp my tires anywhere in first and im sure i could do it in second if im high enough in the rpm's when i punch it.

 

4 words:
I hate the cold

 

i can spin'em easy in first but i'm a 5 spd

 

My 1990 106hp CRX Si could roast the tires in 1st from a roll and get some insane spin and torque steer going into 2nd, more so than my Maxima which is nearly 2 second quicker and 11mph faster in the 1/4 mile. It's not because you have some super fast ride. The reasons you can roast your tires so hard from 1st gear is because:

-The VQ is a traverse-mounted V6 which torques in it's engine mounts a lot. If you punch it, the driveline and engine torque are such that the bump in acceleration makes it far easier to break the tires loose.

-Cold weather = bad traction regardless of tire. Cold climates = dirty, salty, sandy streets which mean crappy traction. Large rims with low profile tires = crappy traction. All-season midgrad performance tires = crappy traction. On my W-rated 235/45R17s and a 70+ degree day, I get no spin punching it in 1st. With my stock H-rated 215/60R15s, I roast them. But at the track I can hook hard with the 215/60R15s. It's all about the surface, conditions, etc. On my 17s in the winter, 1st gear is pretty useless and even hitting it from 2nd can result in some spin if I hit an uneven surface or a little road scum (sand, salt, dampness).



Dave

 

Thems my thoughts too. But I was thinking cold weather specific to air temp=charge density= > HP not so much to tire and road surface characteristics. Tnx Dave for addn'l insight

 

Great idea on the running ***** to the walls right away. Oil doesn't completely circulate until about 30 seconds and doesn't get nice and warm until 4-5 minutes especially if its below freezing and especially if your running stock weight oil.

 

In my defense:
5-50 castrol syntec full synthetic
X1r engine additive (www.x1r.com)
California weather (e.g. 60 degrees)
My engine temp gague gets to the middle/ "normal" usually within 1.5 minutes of idle.

I think im going to try a 1/4 mile run when the engine temp gague is marginally lower than "normal" operating position. I bet theres reasonable gain w/o much risk- esp with the engine fluids im using. Is this super foolish?

 

Well, the lighter oil helps with not hurting at startup but doesn't that mean that it gets thin when you get nice and hot. That X-1R stuff looks pretty good.

 

I dunno about the summer since I have not had this car for a week, but I'm running 225/50/16 Goodyear Eagle LS. Second gear spins around 40 mph. In my old auto I could never spin the tires (215/60/15 Yokahamas). Then I changed the KS and now its pretty easy to spin, not always off the line but around 10 mph is good.

 

I heard from an informed source that it (X1R) works. He said a friend fried an engine in a race- fused everything on it solid- except where there was that additive to the lube. He didnt go into detail and I was a real noob (even more than now) to engines... So I take it he meant the crankshaft would still move but everything else was fused. Not that I could name anything else on an engine that moves