I have a 95 Ram 3500 with the 5.9 Cummins. My question is: Is it normal for my truck to need about 10 minutes to warm up on cold mornings and no less than 5 minutes to warm up on moderate mornings?

I know it good to warm anything but it takes no less than 10 when the temps get to 40 Fahrenheit or below.

 

If its below 40* I usually let it warm up for 5-10 minutes. I try not to let it low idle much longer than that. If its below 10* I usually let it warm up for the full 10 minutes. When I take off I just drive it real easy until the engine reaches full operating temp.

 

There's a lot of iron to heat up, and it's not burning much fuel at idle, so it takes awhile.

I find that if I engage my exhaust brake, it warms up about twice as fast.

 

I set a timer to fire up the block warmer about 3 hours before I get out to the truck. Then let it idle for a couple minutes and get going. I too drive nice and easy until it starts to show movement on the temp gauge.

 

I try to plug in the night before if its going to be in the 20's or below. It takes so long to warm up otherwise and I hate the feeling of driving it while its cold.

Fortunately I live at the end of a dead end road about 3 miles from the highway so I can take it easy until it warms up and I have to drive above 40mph.

I also run synthetics in everything so the gears, bearings, etc function better when cold.

 

I know that I live in the desert, but I never let it sit and idle. I think it is better on any vehicle to drive it easy to warm it up, than to let it sit and idle, just my opinion of course...Mark

 

When mine is cold i start it (plugged in if real cold), run it at 9-1000rpm and it warms up nicely and then drive. If i am short on time i will let it run for a minute and then drive easy until it warms up.

 

My block heater timer is set for 4 hours. Sitting outside at 0°, the grid heater still comes on. I let my truck idle at 1000 rpm until the grid heater stops cycling. Then I drive slowly for the 1st couple miles accelerating very slowly up to speed.