I think I've read around before that running up hills first thing in the morning with a cold engine isn't too hot for a car...but just wanted to reconfirm. From my driveway I basically have two routes...I can either take a right, and end up in the city with traffic lights, or I can take a left, which is basically a big long steep hill that leads up to a highway. I notice running up the hill does bring my RX-8's temperature gauge to midway much quicker, which is why I go that route usually. That, and being able to run along the highway to hopefully save fuel. Although I doubt I save anything...my route to work is maybe a 7 minute drive, not enough to get the engine out of running rich mode. Plus the "highway" is capped at 45 mph.

 

I would say it depends on what you call a "cold" engine. Although it's not all that good to idle forever in your driveway, it is probably better to take a few additional minutes doing so versus running your rpms that high so soon on a hill. I don't think you are ruining your rotary, its just better to not wake her up too soon as I know what its like when I wake up the wife too soon.

 

Well, if you are going up the hill in 6th gear I could see the problem but if the rpm's are in the 2.5K-4K range that should not cause a problem...right???

I'm in FL so our hills are called overpasses and mountains are the ones that go over the ocean, other than that we are in FLAT country! But...anything more I could learn about taking care of my 8 would be great!

 

A cold engine to me is basically the first drive of the day I take the RX-8 for, where it takes at least a good 5 minutes or more to get the temp needle to halfpoint. I do keep the RPMs low regardless of the terrain when I'm still in the warmup phase. I make sure that the RPMs don't go above 3500 until the needle hits halfway. But from what I've read, running up hills produces an additional stress on the engine, and that might not be so good for a cold engine.

 

are we talking abotu the car runnign up a hill with the engine cold...or are you running up teh hill with a cold engine...i woudl think the later wouldn't be very easy at all. i knwo the engine is light but i dn't think it is that light:p lol sorry sorry i coudl resist (must be the med's i'm on) hehehehehehee only good thing abotu being in pain is they give you the medicine that makes you giddy:D

 

As long as you don't lug the engine (too high a gear, too low rpm for the load on the engine), or rev it too much you should be fine.