Here in WA on the water it rarely gets down to freezing, maybe a couple of days each year, and on those days yeah, I'll let it warm up because my freakin windshield has a half-inch of ice on it. Seriously though, when it's that cold out I'll fire it up and go scrape the windows, so it'll warm up for a few minutes. It takes longer to warm up sitting still than it does driving as there's no load. I can let my Ram warm up for 2-3 minutes and then hop in and drive for another 1-2 it'll get up to 190 water temp, but if I let it idle for 5 minutes usually it's still not up to temp. So what's more harmful to an engine, faster lubrication with light engine load, or slower lubrication with lighter load?

The faster the oil warms up, the faster it gets thin enough to flow everywhere. Oil doesn't actually get thicker as it warms, the shear strength increases, which is what that oil guy was trying to say. That first link wasn't written very well at all, even if he knew what he was talking about it doesn't show very well in his text.

edit: I've switched to full synthetic in all of my vehicles.

 

I turn the hot water on, jump in (not into the spray though) and then adjust by turning the cold on before I get it, but I certainly don't wait for all of the pipes and the tub/walls to get up to temp before getting in.

 

I use mobil 1 0w-40, mostly because I got 72 qts for free. so when i start my truck ,the oil pressure is there almost instantly. i wait for my voltmeter to reach 14, usually in 30-60 seconds.

 

I still haven't heard anybody mention the most important issue here. In reality an engine take about 2 or 3 seconds to build oil pressure. The transmission needs to get fluid to the clutch packs and circulate throughout the whole tranny. This is where oil pressure go is very bad. it takes around 1 minute until the tranny is okay to go. You all should know that especially driving dodges. We all know that dodge transmissions are junk. Now if you have a manual tranny. oil pressure and go is just fine. There, thats my 2 cents.