TOM R

my truck seems to take a loooong time to get up to temp, have winter grill inserts installed and a new thermostat any ideas? even left her idle over 30 minutes today and no budge on the gauge but once she is at temp on the gauge everything is fine

John Faughn

Its not uncommon that these engines do not warm up at idle .
Extended idle is not good for the eng. either .
Using a device to hold the idle at 1,300 RPM for warming up is how it should be done , but the best is just working the eng.

PaulDaisy

My will never warm up just idling. I turn on the e-brake and it will warm up in 15 min but I usually just start driving after 3-4 min and then it warms up in some 5-6 miles.

WestTN

It's best to just drive it. Don't idle for long periods.

TOM R

ok, i thought there was something wrong, my buddie just bought the same truck in a 3/4 ton andit seems to heat up fast

vasylr

3-4 minutes warmup and then drive?
what about transmisson? it will be cold, will it shift?

TOM R

when I say warm up I mean the temp gauge is up to the 180* mark

xtoyz17

My truck has high idle via my adrenaline, but it idles 3-5 minutes in the morning. The first thirty seconds is normal, remainder is high idle. By the time I get in, the truck is usually around 100. In 1-2 miles it's at about 140. At this point I've got warm air. In 3-4 miles I've got almost full heat.

Driving these is the only way to get them to warm up.

Shawn

PRG

I wait the three minutes until the grid heaters stop cycling and then drive gently for the first few miles, until the temp gage gets into the operating range. I also put the transmission in Neutral to let the pump circulate the fluid. That way the fluid begins to warm a bit also.

klx650a2

I took the cooling fan off the front of the truck, easy to do. Warms up fast and stays warm.

And LOTS more power and better fuel economy!!!! (just kidding, no difference at all)

John Faughn

We are starting to pile up miss information .
The grid heaters do not operate for 3 min.
Not all trucks [ set up the same ] will operate the same .
The mass [ 2-21/2 times as heavy ] just takes longer to warm up .
I noticed that if I put the heat/ac control , all the way clockwise to the little car with the arrow inside , it does not mix outside air , and I get heat sooner , vs defrost , at feet ect.
If your normal driving is several miles of in town driving , then it is not going to heat up as fast as getting on the freeway , but you also need to block off most of the cold air getting to the rad.
I get enough heat after about 4 miles of freeway , but that's with an engine that's been plugged in also .
When it gets colder than about *10F , I put a packing blanket over the eng. with the hood closed .
What hasn't been mentioned yet , is that its possible that the thermostat has an issue , get one from Cummins , but I only put parts in the test bad , if its just the normal slow to warm , then a Tstat is not going to make a difference .

WestTN

Just a note on the thermostat in case you aren't aware of it. When these 'stats fail, they stay open. Also, in the past there were some that had a rubber part which could move and jam the 'stat.

klx650a2

One other thing about idling, make sure you let it idle in neutral if its an automatic. It does not circulate the tranny oil properly in park. My old company burnt out 3 auto's before they figured that one out...

TOM R

i did replace the stat before starting this thread also blocked off the entire grille, i will start running her in nutral for warm ups though

Midnite

While it's perfectly true that the stock tranny in our trucks doesn't circulate fluid in park, idling in park isn't going to cause any damage on a normally operating tranny.

One thing to be careful of when pulling the fan is that if you set the fan ducting to a position that activates the A/C compressor (ie, defrost does this), you don't put any airflow through the condenser and the pressure in the A/C system can get too high and blow something if you idle too long. How long is too long? That's the question. Just something to be careful of. When I pulled the fan from my '92 I made sure I put the ducting switch to route the air either to the floor or the vents--those switch positions don't engage the A/C (at least up to 2002 for sure, but probably also the newer years). If you're careful about that, pulling the fan does help quite a bit.

Another thing I did was put a pad heater on the oil pan, and that helped some as well when I plugged in. It also gave me oil pressure faster during colder periods (below 0 F.)

Mike