I have a friend who is moving to northeastern Washington. We were talking about warm up devices. Is there a way to change the idle to about 1000 to 1200 rpm's in very cold weather? He has a 02 ctd. I think that I read in other links that you don't want your truck to idle too much in cold weather and that it doesn't warm up properly idling at 800 rpm's. I'm talkin about really cold temps. How do those of you who live in very cold climates handle this problem, or is it even a problem?

Gary

 

You'll get a lot of opinions on this one, you can be sure of that, hehe. It's true, idling at 800 won't warm the Cummins up...but neither will idling at 1200! There's a fine line you have to walk when the engine is really cold. Here's what works for me: Fire the truck up and let idle untill oil pressure builds fully. Once there's oil pressure, I ramp the idle up to about 1200 and lock it there (early 1st gens have a factory-installed high idle cable). Now I go in and get my coffee and paper. I make it a rule only to high idle it when cold for about 3 minutes. Then I hop in and go, but I'm real easy on the go pedal untill the thermostat opens. All that cast iron takes a long time to heat up. Get on the loud pedal and you've got 1000 degrees on the piston and like, 32 degrees on the cylinder surrounding the piston---poor headgasket...I try not to run the truck on a cold cold day unless I'm sure I have to go far enough to fully warm it up. Oh, and tell your buddy to plug that sucker in!! I have mine on a timer. Even at 10 below I had heat before I hit the key and the grids didn't cycle!
Hope this helps.
greg

 

Ive got a high idle switch that came from my Cummins dealer - its not a Cummins parts but something a local guy was making and they were selling. Unfortunately, he doesnt make them anymore. Works like a charm - raises the idle to 1200 rpm.

Ive also got an Espar Hydronic water heater - plus the Exhaust brake. Im ready for winter

 

go to your local dodge dealer, and get the high idle reflash TSB done. this will auto ramp the idle to 1200 rpm at temps less than 0 C at intake, and at less than -9C it will knock down three cylinders to allow for faster warm up times.
Get an exhaust brake, and use it to load the engine down to keep it warm.

and most important. Buy a toyota gasser, and drive in in cold weather. Save the diesel for important stuff.

Good luck

 

A ESPAR heater heats the coolant and is great because you never have a real cold start....but the exhaust brake keeps the combustion and cylinder temps up, so you could probably let the truck idle all day long with no harmful effects and it helps it warmup quick as well..

 

Unplug the block heater, fire it up, get oil pressure and go. I chug down the street for a few blocks until I hit the local Timmy's. By the time they hand me my coffee, it's off I go fully warmed up.

I do have an exhaust brake which gets used where applicable. Flaming up a frozen Cummins at minus whatever temp at 5 am does not impress my neighbours at all!!

Jeff

 

I have an 05 2500 Bighorn 4x4, quad cab Diesel, and am living in Anchorage Alaska. I bought the DC grill cover and love it, but it does not help much warming it up for idle in the mornings. Can the high idle reflash be done on my truck also or is it already configured properly? I have noticed the idle will go up occasionally at idle to about 1000rpm for a few minutes, then back down. I also have the stock heater plug, should I have anything else to help warm the truck up in the morning? I may also consider the exhaust brake. Thanks

 

After you get about 20k on the engine switching to 5W40 or 0W40 synthetic oil will help a lot in the winter

Its a lot of money...but an ESPAR heater will save a ton of wear and tear on your engine. As you probably already know, cold starts are hard on engines:

D4: http://www.espar.com/htm/Specs/water/D4Wspec.htm

D5: http://www.espar.com/htm/Specs/water/hydro5.htm

Webasto Blue Heat: http://www.scheiddiesel.com/Webasto.htm

 

A cheap way to raise your combustion temps and raise up the idle is to use a stick. Wedge it between the seat and the pedal. Works good.

 

Boy I better look into some of those ideas.....it may be dropping into the 50's at night soon!!

 

2002 has the high idle already in the ECM, it just comes from the factory disabled, and must be enabled by a competent dealer tech.

Print out this, http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2001/18-019-01.htm
and have him take it to the Dealership.
Since it is already in the ECM, all they need to do is steps 7 through 16 ,
it might help to take a highliter marker and highlite step 14, as this is the step they usually forget.
If he is already at the Dealership for another service item, they might be convinced to throw it in for free,
otherwise expect up to a $90 fee for their 5 minutes of valuble time.


phox

 

Just plug it in below 40 F, and tell him to; "Drive it like you stole it!"

He's moving to Washington, not Siberia!

 

When I used to drive an OTR Peterbilt, I wasn't supposed to idle at a low RPM, ever. It goes without saying that all of us idled when the truck wasn't moving: for A/C in the summer or heat in the winter. Sorry, the engine was a CAT 3406E, but the point is eveyone's engine idled in the winter. The cruise was set so you hit it and it idled up to 1,100 or so.

The point to this is idling up wasn't about warmth primarily, as it was to keep from developing "slobber" as it was called. Don't know what it was made out of, but it was like liquid and would spit out the stacks. That's why, as all the mechanics told me, not to idle at less than 1,000-1,200 RPM. Maybe worth investigating.

 

This works well. The truck already has this feature it just has to be activated. I think they charged me less than $10.00 to activate mine. IMO definetly worth having done.

 

I fire mine upand wait a second till i got oil pressureand flip the brake on. I go back inside, fill my thermos, go feed the horses and by the time i get back to the truck and we are not talking 10 minutes either the heater is blowing warm air ant the temp is up from 140. Did i mention i love my exhaust brake.

Stevo