[no bs]

 

For some years BMW has been recommending that their air/oil and water cooled motorcycles be started and then ridden of immediately.  They claim that doing so will warm the engine up faster and decreases wear and pollution.  Or maybe that is just Euro 2/3/4 talking.   

said they wouldn't invade Poland either...

[suitcasejefferson]

I am a huge believer in warming things up, not only Enfields but modern bikes, cars, trucks, etc. There are several reasons. One is to get the oil circulating good. Another is that cold metal is weak and brittle, easily broken and more prone to wear. Another is to warm it up slowly. If you warm it too quickly, like starting it up and giving it full throttle, you can cause thermal cracking. Metsal expands when it gets hot, and if it gets hot too fast it can crack. And the last reason is that the internal engine clearances are only correct when warm. The engineers designed things with the expansion of metal taken into account. They designed them to be correct when warm, not cold. I am a former private pilot (didn't own a plane) and owner of several air cooled VWs. I learned just how important it is to warm an engine up slowly.


Overnight I give the Enfield around 10 minutes. Half an hour at McDonalds I still give it at least 30 seconds, to get the oil circulating again, due to the Enfield's ancient dry sump oiling system.

[Blairio]

Half an hour at McDonalds I still give it at least 30 seconds, to get the oil circulating again, due to the Enfield's ancient dry sump oiling system.

Now I am all confused. I thought the UCE motor was wet sump?

[Rattlebattle]

Don’t be. It is. He’s wrong.

[longstrokeclassic]

The UCE flow rate from the pump is up to 10 liters per minute. https://www.slideshare.net/classicmw/royal-enfield-uce-lubrication
Okay nowhere near that rate when at idle but its not going to take long to circulate oil throughout all those small galleries which probably equates to around half a cup full.
I warm mine up for about two minutes, the time it takes to gear up and go once the bikes out on the driveway but always ride it as if it's a brand new engine for the first couple of miles.     

[suitcasejefferson]

The UCE is still a dry sump motor. It doesn't have an oil tank like a Harley, but stores the oil in a separate part of the crankcase. I don't know about Europe, but there are several EPA lies being told in the U.S. that people tend to believe, because it is what they want to hear. They recommend not warming up the engine because it "wastes gas and creates air pollution" I agree the choke on carbureted bikes should be turned off as soon as possible, not sure what can be done with EFI bikes.

They are also the ones behind the super long recommended oil change intervals, for a couple of reasons. One, it uses more oil to change it when it actually should be changed. Then there is the used oil to deal with. The EPA is trying to minimize these two things, and it's not hard to convince people their vehicle needs less maintenance, because most people hate maintenance. I on the other hand love it. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of properly maintaining my vehicles. One more reason the EPA does not want you to warm up your vehicle or change the oil as often as it should be changed is literally to shorten the life of your engine. They think that newer engines will make less pollution, so they want to see older vehicles replaced with newer ones as soon as possible. The same thing applies to the super lightweight oils they recommend. An ancient design long stroke air cooled engine needs the heaviest oil you can get. I use 20w50, but straight 50w might be better. A long stroke engine hammers it's bearings hard, and thin oil just won't hold up to that. The EPA cares nothing about your vehicle. They just want it to make as little pollution as possible, burn as little gas as possible, use as little oil as possible, and wear out as soon as possible. Sound crazy? Don't forget this is the EPA. They are certifiable.

[Rattlebattle]

No, the old iron barrel Bullets are as you describe: dry sump but having the oil tank in the crankcase. Panthers also had this arrangement The UCE bikes have a wet sump engine. Apart from the fact that it says so in the workshop manual the oil pump has no return side, so there is nothing to remove excess oil from the sump and return it to the tank that it doesn't have. One lot of oil lubricates engine, primary drive and gearbox, another characteristic of a wet sump engine. You only have to look at an exploded diagram of the engine to realise that it is wet sump, albeit a bit of an odd design.
As for warming up oil, fifty years ago I would have agreed with you. In those days only monograde oil was available. This had to be a compromise and, especially if running straight 50 in an air cooled engine, care would need to be taken to warm up the engine to get the thick oil circulating before placing load on the engine. Then came multigrade oil, designed specifically to address this issue. More recently we have part and full synthetic oils containing all sorts of additives to reduce wear and pollution. They have also increased the viscosity range. Add to this big advances in metallurgy and things like nikasil coating on bores, all things that have not only reduced the wear on engines, but also maintenance requirements. When did anybody last decoke a cylinder head as a routine task? As for VW motors in aircraft - I'm no pilot, but don't you need full throttle to take off? Sure, I'd want a properly warm engine for that too....Nobody is saying just ride off and give it full bore straight off, just that gentle use warms up the engine more effectively than just letting it tick over for minutes.
BTW you may recall I fitted the same carb conversion kit as you, around the same time. I've just removed mine. Although it fuelled nicely I have doubts about what's going on with the ignition curve. Mine started to pink a bit, having refitted the EFI it now runs much better. I believe the earlier conversion with the replacement generator and ECU is probably a better bet. IIRC your bike isn't ridden anyway, is it unless you've fixed the back brake?

[Richard230]

I'm with Rattlebattle on this one. Fortunately, he said it first so I didn't have to.