I leave mine plugged in at night, in a garage. Today I pull out for work and it is 7 degrees out. I let it warm up for 2 minutes outside until the voltmeter goes to normal (have to do it outside garage, wife does not like smell of diesel in her car), and pull away and it only rattles for the first 2 shifts. But even after driving for 20 minutes and having the coolant temperature at normal range, it still smokes when accelerating.<br><br>Is this normal? I'm using #2 with 40 cetane from local truck stop.

Hmmmm.... depends on what you mean by &quot;smoke.&quot;

We talking smoke or steam?

If ambient (woooo, a fancypants term - LOL) temps are low enough, even a diesel will steam a bit (not as much as a gasser would).

If you really do have smoke after the initial start up puff - I think you may have a problem that needs to be checked out.

Has anyone else noticed their new CTD is more cold-blooded than the old ones? I've had 2 prior 2nd Gen Dodge Cummins and they would warm up within 4 miles of leaving my house and getting on the interstate. The new truck takes almost 8 miles (twice as far) to hit the normal temp mark. My take on this is the new CTD's efficiency at creating more power from less fuel generates less working heat. Any thoughts on this, my friends?

Best to y'all
Bill :)

Not sure how many miles it takes Bill but it takes forever to warm. Oil pressure stays high and temp stays low. As the oil pressure reduces, the temp gauge goes up and finally get some heat outta the heater too. <br><br>Alls I can say is, A LONG TIME!<br><br>Hunter

The colder it gets the more they smoke. Every diesel that I have does it. At 40 below you make ice fog. Once they warm up the amount of (smoke) does down.

The owner's manual says something about cold operation. If you don't idle long enough for the manifold heater to do its job, as soon as you exceed 18-mph, the manifold heater will shut off and the truck will smoke more. Now - it doesn't say how long you have to idle it, or what indication you will have that it has done its job -- unless they're refering to the preheat light on the dash, and you shouldn't even start the engine until that has shut off, so I don't know how 18-mph would have any effect on that. ???

Thanks for the responses guys. I've known that some diesels smoke (I drove a Freightliner a few years ago for a trucking firm), but somehow I must've thought the new ones wouldn't. Chalk that one up to newbie ignorance. It was 23 degrees this morning, and no smoke or steam (Utah I don't know whether it was smoke or steam, the guy who was tailgating me probably knows ;D). I was talking with a diesel mechanic and he said even though the coolant may have been up to temp, not all of the other related components were and therefore I still was not truly warmed up. I guess I'll buy that since today no smoke.