Preheating engines: Airplane engines versus auto engines

I purchased Fat Albert from an FBO who kept him in an unheated hangar
for 40 years, and never preheated unless it was well below zero
(that's in Farenheit, sonny)... Often it was a 3AM panic call from GM
who needed engine parts delivered to avoid the assembly plant from
shutting down and their truck was already on the way to the airport
with the parts....Load the plane, start the engines, hurry down the
taxiway checking mags while rolling, swing onto the runway, cob the
throttles and go... Elapsed running time from start to takeoff, less
than two minutes for the nearest runway, and perhaps three minutes for
the furthest... HIs engines routinely went to TBO...

While there is nothing wrong with preheat, etc. - there is also
nothing wrong with using synthetic oil and preheating only for extreme
temperatures... The biggest killer of aircraft engines is dry starts
from weeks/months of sitting between starts... Low temperature starts
on a well oiled engine have little to no impact on the wear cycle...
I use 15W50 in the winter and 100W+ in the summer... I do not preheat
unless it is below zero F... My starboard engine has 1700 hours since
factory zero and other than the oil burn being ~ 3 hours to the quart,
it starts and runs like a new engine... The port engine has 900 hours
since a field overhaul and it runs fine...

denny