act1292,
How long does it take for your car to warm up in the morning? I'm assuming you don't idle your car before you drive off. It takes me a good 10-15 minutes in this cold weather for my water temp to reach the halfway point. Probably 20 minutes before I start getting solid hot heat from the vents, but I never seem to get to the point where I need to turn down the heat. Do you think this is normal? Or maybe my heater control valve really is not opening all the way.

 

I see first movement of the temp gauge within a mile. It is fully warmed up in 5-10 min. depending on how cold it is. And you are correct, I don't idle it but drive lightly on it till it reaches temp. I run a 92C thermostat on my engine.

 

I wonder if this slow-to-warm car doesn't have a stuck-open thermostat?

 

The thermostat is most certainly not the issue as I tested it before I installed it about 2 weeks ago.

Is it possible my radiator fan is working 'too' well? Maybe the clutch on the belt-driven radiator fan is engaged more often than it should be, causing the cold air to cool the engine block, not actually through cooling it from the radiator.

For now, it takes a while to warm up, but I'm relatively satisfied with its operation. It could be worse, that's for sure.

 

Act1292,
You called it first! I replaced my heater control valve only to find that my old one wasn't opening all the way. It was opening maybe half way.

Now my heater heats up within a couple short minutes, after that, I need to turn down my heat. Though the weather is pretty warm now, my car heater would never work this quickly.

 

Good to hear you got it sorted out. Just in time as we're supposed to get below zero again this week (at least in the Chicago area).