ShinerBock wrote:
ScottG wrote:
(Sorry, off topic) The thing I don't understand is how new gas engines warm up so fast.
The 6.4L in our other Dodge starts blowing nice warm air within 30 seconds of starting no matter how cold it is outside. Almost makes me think there's a electric coil in there.
Two words... thermal efficiency.
Due to the high compression ratios/expansion ratio of a diesel, most of the heat(energy) made during the combustion process is used as work and does not need to be carried away in the coolant. Gasoline engines are less efficient at utilizing the heat(energy) as work from the combustion process and more heat gets soaked into the engine which gets carried away in the coolant. Therefore a lower compression ratio gasoline engine will get the coolant to a higher temp much faster due to how inefficient it is at utilizing the energy from the combustion process versus a diesel.
Sorry for the "engine nerd" answer.
I don't know about your particular engine but some newer engines have two cooling loops, on for the head and one for the block. The head heats up much faster than the block and they put the heater on that loop. In addition they can avoid cooling the block until that is truly needed.