RPM90. Just as stated we are not waiting till peak temp to thrashing our engines but do make sure it hits a general operating temperature. You qoute about modern engineering accounting for all of this but then argue that old day techniques like your coolant gauge are the way to monitor this. Our coolant heats faster than the metals in our engine. I've seen coolant and oil gauges read in numbers or colors or from humbum to yehaa.. Just because it's not painted like you think it should be, doesn't mean it's a useless instrument. The same engineers you trust to account for thermal expansion are the ones that chose an oil gauge and not a temperature gauge for your engine and apparently they are being paid a little more for their opinions than you. Your engine is not near the temperature it's engineered for max life/performace at the point when your thermostat opens up. Coolant heats and cools too quickly to measure the temperature of your engine during it's closed loop/inital cooling stages where all the heat it is absorbing is from the head/combustion chamber, that's why we use it as a COOLANT. It's like saying there was one successful combustion in a cylinder of your engine and it was at the right temp so now your car is operating at temperature. You are allowed what ever opinon you would like. And you paid for the car so drive it however you perfer. but no matter how you drive, your warrenty will be long gone by the time you find which way was right or wrong. At least there will be plenty of people with fine operating cars that can help pull you to the junkyard.
