tus

Best guess, and the usual reason you go to an electric water pump when building a performance engine, is they ran out of space between the front of the engine and the radiator. The GS is a front engine/rear drive setup compared to the front traverse engine/FWD setup in the RX.

riredale

I think you might be overthinking these issues a bit.

The Toyota hybrids are known for their excellent engineering. If Toyota had determined in their millions of miles of experience that an external oil pump increased engine life, they would have incorporated one. Same with the oil--they specify a synthetic 0w-20. Buying an oil "designed for start-stop engines" is just marketing fluff, in my opinion.

EDIT: Just went to that Castrol website. Wow, those guys have put a lot of time and money into trying to sell the public on the evils lurking inside start-stop engines! Again, in my view a load of bull droppings. On the other hand, one could use the detailed start-stop index of major cities around the world to help determine where NOT to live, if you don't fancy being stuck in heavy traffic.

salimshah

Here is another view point.

Short invntervals between shutdown and start has enough oil (pumped up last or even left coated) is not as bad as long delays between stop and start.

Frequency of shutdown and start has not been considered.

Salim

tempestv8

OK, I think I can live with that perspective, Salim. I was thinking that same point myself, i.e. there is enough fresh residual oil around the cylinder bores to allow for adequate lubrication in readiness for the next crank.

Perhaps, as a best practice, I will not try to accelerate aggressively from when 0 RPM, so as to keep the revs low to allow the oil pressure to build up after startup. Flat footing it from standstill may cause the engine to fire up into high revs immediately before the oil pump has had the chance to build up sufficient oil pressure to protect the cylinder bores, where the most damage occurs during the first few seconds.

salimshah

Lets take it one more step closer to real purpose of Hybrid ... try to stay all electric in a parking garage or during a crawl in stop'n go traffic. Call me glutton for punishment, but I do feel proud in the stop'n go traffic driving a Hybrid/

Salim

tempestv8

Opposite to the original thread, I found a way of keeping the engine off for longer periods of time. If I press the OFF button for the HVAC system, to disable the airconditioning or heating function, the engine stays off a lot longer. Especially in winter with the heater turned on, the engine has to warm up the coolant sufficiently so that the heater gets some heat. However, if the HVAC is turned off completely with the OFF button, the engine cuts out very soon after initial startup and the coolant temperatures take a much much longer time to get to full operating temp. So if stuck in traffic soon after taking off, the engine stays off for much longer.

Great! I now have a way of keeping engine on for as long as I want in certain conditions, and a way of keeping the engine off for longer too! A win win technique to suit the conditions that I'm driving in.

Droid13

This is one of the main functions of the ECO setting. While it doesn't completely shut off HVAC, Eco mode will de-emphasize it, and result in much more frequent engine stops.

paperthin

This is why I block the grill in the winter. My wife drives a lot on battery and the engine gets cold fast.

tempestv8

I see some of the newer 4x4s now have an automated grille which blocks airflow when the external ambient temperatures are low, like the new BMW X7.

Just out of curiosity, how exactly do you block the radiator?

The way I am getting the engine to warm up faster is to put the transmission into S instead of D, so that the engine keeps running even when the vehicle is stopped a traffic lights.

paperthin

I had a picture which i lost. What I used was foam pipe insulation in the vertical grills and one single pipe insulation on the lower opening below. I used zip ties to help them stay on and then remove them in the spring. IT stands upo to the winter highway driaving and even the car washes. This is something that I do for my diesel vehicle which is where I got the idea from. If i find the picture I will let you know.