When is it warm?

[Luciano]

I don\'t have an oil temperature gauge, and I want to know I can judge when my car is warm enough to use the turbo and higher revs.

Is there a general guide?  At the moment I use the water temperature, when its at the "normal" temperature.

What do other people use as a guide?

Am I wrong to use water temperature?

Cheers
Luciano

[Wav]

The oil takes a lot longer than the water to get up to temp, so I wouldn\'t use that as an accurate guide. When I didn\'t have an oil temp gauge I used to wait for a bout 5mins after the water temp has got to the "Normal" position. In other cars, you can use the oil pressure to gauge it, i.e if the oil pressure drops to about 1-2bar at idle then it\'ll be warm enough, usually when cold it\'ll be about 4-5bar. However the mazda OE oil pressure gauge tends to be a little dodgy, so not sure how well that works on our rotaries.

Think the best bet is to simply get an oil temp gauge:p

Paul:)

[Sean]

I\'m trying to get an oil temp gauge for this very reason, at the moment, I just wait till cold start has finished, then drive gently for 5 mins before opening her up:3gears-rh

[Luciano]

I\'m looking for an oil temp gauge now - which range should I buy?

ie 50 - 200 etc etc

Thanks!

[chrisBoid]

I find that water temp gets to 80-ish reasonably fast.  Oil takes an age, I don\'t go above 3000rpm until my oil hits 80, which can take 10-15 mins.

Equally important is warm down, I always have a cool down period of keeping the revs in check for the last 10-15 mins of a journey, plus when I stop I let the radiator fans kick in twice (with AC turned on).

Is that enough though?

[Luciano]

Chris, your car sounds like it is well looked after!

I will have to get a gauge by the sounds of it...

[gsb876]

Usually the water temp hits "normal" while the oil temp is around 30-40oC so in theory no its not ok to use high revs judging by the water temp. As Chris says about 15 mins would usually be about right.

[Fish]

And dont forget at this time of year, it takes even longer to warm up.

Fish