Imagine a cold-soaked engine with an aluminum piston, steel rings, a cast iron sleeve in an aluminum head. The aluminum piston will heat very quickly compared to the cast iron sleeve in an air-cooled engine. (There’s a massive aluminum heat sink in the form of the cylinder head.)

For a water cooled engine, there is a water passage around 3/16” from the cylinder wall which helps to bring the cylinder up to an even temperature more quickly and prevents a high heat flux from expanding the piston to the point where it can scuff the walls.

It’s not only oil pressure that is a concern for a cold-start to operating temps.