At cold idle, my guage shows 75 lb. pressure. This seems high to me...is this typical for these engines? I don't dare put the motor under load until the temp reaches 150 or so. Skeered it might blow!

Needless to say this is usually 15 minutes of warm up in the morning.

Next question - to what extent do high pressures contribute to leaky gaskets?
I think I know the answer but maybe you deisel experts could enlighten me.

 

In 1999 cummins changed the bypass to drain to the pan instead of the inlet, this stopped that problem. Mine starts at a higher pressure also. Our 98 fire truck with a isc pins the gage on every startup.

IF it dropps to normal after warm up it is normal. Should not hurt anything, just keep the rpms down till it warms up, supposed to anyway. Don't go over 2000 till it warms up and keep the throttle down.

 

I am absolutely certain that warming it up for 15 minutes is doing far greater damage than high oil pressure ever will, start it and drive, just keep the rpms under 2000.
Early on many folks experienced oil filter splitting due to the high cold pressure, this problem was addressed by beefing up the filter case. Have heard of no other problems related to high pressure.

 

Thanks for your responses. Infidel, educate me...how does warm up cause engine damage?

 

turfquip............idle time is not good for diesels unless equipped with a high idle. Do a search and read the many posts on idling.

Waylan

 

A cheap high idler is a stick cut to length to run the engine around 1700.

 

I'll give you a suggestion for when it gets cold. YOur pan has a plug on the side of it. That plug is to mount the oil heater that is just like the water heater in the block. You can pick one up from Cummins and install it at an oil change. That will keep your oil warm for lower pressure on rolloff in cold weather. This is only on the commercial pan.

 

Thank you very much!

 

During extended cold idling combustion is incomplete. The excess fuel will wash the lube oil off your cylinder walls, not good at all. This is appropriately called washdown.
Cold idling can also lead to fuel contamination of your motor oil. I've seen quite a few cases where the oil level on the dipstick will actually increase due to fuel making past the rings into the pan. Obviously mixing diesel with your motor oil isn't advisable.