T8 engine longevity

[soupytwister]

Struck me this.

Some drivers have no concept of how to treat an engine for longevity. Ie not putting under excessive load from cold, making sure everything warms up nicely.

A PHEV like the T8 will often kick in the engine for the first time when accelerating hard or exceeding 77mph (not that anyone does that of course!).

In my simple brain, that’s a cold engine being put under maximum strain with no warm oil/water circulating around it. Surely they cannot be good for engine life.

Or am I just too “old school” and the modern engine doesn’t care about being warmed up

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by soupytwister

Struck me this.

Some drivers have no concept of how to treat an engine for longevity. Ie not putting under excessive load from cold, making sure everything warms up nicely.

A PHEV like the T8 will often kick in the engine for the first time when accelerating hard or exceeding 77mph (not that anyone does that of course!).

In my simple brain, that’s a cold engine being put under maximum strain with no warm oil/water circulating around it. Surely they cannot be good for engine life.

Or am I just too “old school” and the modern engine doesn’t care about being warmed up

Fear not! It will be way out of warranty by then, won't cost the manufacturers a penny and open the door for another "Eco" replacement!

I'm not a bitter old dinosaur.

[Cull06]

I wondered this too. Particularly as it’s a relatively small 4 pot but highly tuned considering.

I haven’t seen much in the way of engine issues longer term on the t8 on here though. Just the dreaded erad.

[Familyman 90]

Certainly the OP is correct in general. Its not thrashing a motor that kills it - its thrashing it while stone cold that does the damage.

However, the modern materials are tough to a degree that could only be dreamed of 15 years ago, and ditto the machining tolerances and out understanding of the combustion process at a molecular level.

Chuck in the lubrcants they use, and the clever split cooling systems that allow the motor to get heat through very quickly, quite an efficient lubrication system, and you can see that Volvo have done quite a lot to mitigate this problem. It wouldn't worry me at all.

The specific output of the ICE unit is quite low by modern standards, only about 106 BHP/L, and the use of supercharging and a small turbo rather than a big blower a la Scooby/Mitsubishi helps to keep the excess heat at bay as well as aid driveablility.

Certainly it doesn't worry Volvo in places like the US, where the powertrain has a 10 year/150,000 mile warranty.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by soupytwister

Struck me this.

Some drivers have no concept of how to treat an engine for longevity. Ie not putting under excessive load from cold, making sure everything warms up nicely.

A PHEV like the T8 will often kick in the engine for the first time when accelerating hard or exceeding 77mph (not that anyone does that of course!).

In my simple brain, that’s a cold engine being put under maximum strain with no warm oil/water circulating around it. Surely they cannot be good for engine life.

Or am I just too “old school” and the modern engine doesn’t care about being warmed up

I dont think you will be "thrashing" it with that 8 speed transmission . which keeps the engine at 1800 rpm at any speed up to 80 mph under normal driving . Then don't forget you have the electric motor taking a lot of load OFF the engine when pulling hard ....there will be warm water circulating within seconds with the complex 2 circuit cooling system as well . volvo do consider this kind of thing when designing the engineering !

[soupytwister]

Thanks Clan around the engineering.

More me being old skool

[sk546]

As Clan mentions, the T8's have a rather handy (and likely complex) heating system that ensures the block and most engine fluids are not stone cold when the ICE is called into action for the first time (unless you start the car in Power/Polestar Engineered driving mode and the ICE is started straight away).

With regards to the gearbox though, I have first hand experience that says it doesn't keep rpm below 1,800rpm. When in hybrid mode and you ask for more power than the electric drive can provide (usually accelerating away from a roundabout or up a hill), the ICE will kick in and provide extra power however, at that stage the driver is asking for quite a bit of accelerator pedal and this does result in the engine revving reasonably hard in order to supply what is demanded so sometimes you do feel like you are thrashing it.
Thankfully this is where we come back to the above mentioned pre-heating system utilised by Volvo which also provides very quick cabin heating in winter.

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Clan

I dont think you will be "thrashing" it with that 8 speed transmission . which keeps the engine at 1800 rpm at any speed up to 80 mph under normal driving . Then don't forget you have the electric motor taking a lot of load OFF the engine when pulling hard ....there will be warm water circulating within seconds with the complex 2 circuit cooling system as well . volvo do consider this kind of thing when designing the engineering !

Comforting!

[sk546]

Originally Posted by Familyman 90

The specific output of the ICE unit is quite low by modern standards, only about 106 BHP/L, and the use of supercharging and a small turbo rather than a big blower a la Scooby/Mitsubishi helps to keep the excess heat at bay as well as aid driveablility.

Try more like 160-165bhp/L, not sure about your T8 but mine has close to 330bhp.

[Philip Fisher]

The petrol pre-heater warms the engine usually before it starts.

But in just the same way a driver can thrash a conventional engine from cold, you can thrash a T8 engine from cold. Or you can adapt your style to suit the T8. I know when the engine starts in the morning (when I get onto the roundabout at the end of my road). So a force the engine to start whilst I am waiting for a gap so at least it has some time to circulate on tickover before I pull out into the traffic.