I'm going to pick on the vintage iron gasser engine layout, when done here.:mrgreen:
By the way, who is telling the old fairy tale about being used as a boat engine? Engine design is not made as a cold running engine. As can be seen on the alloy bearing carrier rings.
This engine was used with great reliability and success in austrian agricultural machines(Reform)under heavy load conditions.
Engine setup is different. Lower charger pressure and different cooling layout with a much lower red zone.

Did anyone recognized the manipulated engine coolant temperature display? It stays locked around 90° to 100°- in case of overheating the needle jumps suddenly to the red zone! This is not possible with a linear reading meter.

Read somewhere ages ago that car manufacturers won't fit linear gauges coz they create unrest -- ppl just don't like seeing that needle creep. So they actually forced some poor engineer to deliberately create gauges that act like a indicator light. You might as well have a light on the dash that glows red when there's trouble. (Come to think that's exactly what my old HQ holden did have :D)

Don't know if it's true or not....

Some modern cars I've driven have no temp gauge, they have a red light for overheating, and some of them have a blue light for not warmed up yet :roll:

I always struggle with how long to warm an engine up. My manual clearly states not to idle for more than 5 minutes as this contributes to glazing. It also says to idle for 1 minute to lube the turbo before driving. I wait the minute and then drive reasonably until the water guage reads normal and then I just drive normal. However driving reasonably seems to lag the engine more. Is there a good choice?

vk2icj I'd go on the long side of 1 minute, and then drive without labouring the engine. Normal driving within the warm up period is okay, particularly in a 4WD where torque is delivered down low. The key is not to thrash it during warm up.

Idle is very important- but the main reason is to supply the turbocharger with oil. Because the charger is a supplemental external device and the last unit which receives oil.
Don't idle longer than necessary- EGR opens during partial load(including idle) and soot builds up quickly in the intake. I had to scrape out 3-5mm of soot after 100k.
But anything longer than a minute during cold conditions is waste of Diesel.

The shut down prodedure is even more important. You would be amazed to see engine temperatures climbing after shut down!

Water temperature may be ok-but oil temperature will be at a safe operating temperature after the double distance- if you drive without load!

sorry about the boat engine thingy, this thread is titled "myths and fairytails...";) i am adamant that it would still make a good boat anchor if it breaks:mad:

perhaps the engineers should have spent more time modifying the block?
agricultural use in Austria is hardly stop start conditions in an Australian summer.

Deez, would copper head gaskets and a really good low viscosity synthetic oil (changed at same regular intervals) go some way to prevent the VM's dramas?

the toyota boys (in the earlier model 3.0l supras) claim an elimination of blown gaskets while still allowing the head to 'wander'.

and todays modern full synthetics have far greater lubricity at a greater range of temps. they have a lower viscosity for a given application, lubricating internals sooner and evenly spreading heat better.