Once upon a time, before fuel injection and effective manifold heat, cars were not very drivable when cold. The gasoline would not vaporize well in the cold ca

Once upon a time, before fuel injection and effective manifold heat, cars were not very drivable when cold. The gasoline would not vaporize well in the cold carburetor so the “choke” had to be set to enrich the mixture. When the vaporized fuel interfaces with cold metal in the intake manifold and intake passages in the head(s), the fuel condenses out of suspension, creating a very lean mixture, despite the choke being set. Combine this with dropping revs from leaving a stop in a manual transmission car, and stalls were frequent. The solution was to allow the engine to “warm up”. I have an old Toyota fj40 that reminds me of the before times when it’s cold. The author of the article got many things wrong. Washing the cylinders is a thing, but the cylinder has just had a combustion event in it that runs at 2600°F or higher. There is very little oil on the cylinder walls during the “power stroke” in a 4-cycle engine. The walls are reoiled on the exhaust, intake and compression strokes. A study by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) found that the temperature of the combustion chamber walls (the top section of the cylinder wall), specifically, ranges from 265° F under limited throttle to 475° F with the throttle wide open. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/930217/#:~:text=Average%20combustion%20chamber%20surface%20temperatures,C%20to%20258%20deg https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/93.... The flashpoint for motor oils is 300-475° F, which is why you can maintain a thin film in the cylinder walls. Excessive idling will foul spark plugs and valve seats.