I'm in a similar boat. I have about a 3 mile trip to work and often short trips to lunch. But, I live in SoCal where it rarely gets below 40-50 deg - even in the morning. I occasionally drive it longer distances - but not every other day like the OP (probably more on the order of once a week). I asked once before about driving it in T/H to keep the revs up and I don't think it was advised. I never considered putting it in 2nd. That sounds pretty extreme.

Assuming that I'm doing damage driving these short distances, what engine components are affected?

 

sry guys i just got back home and it looks like i have confused some. my bad. im talking about just like NJMurvin posted above. frequent short trip before engine has a chance to warmup. im looking for ways to make engine warm up faster than normal. What i meant with the electric fans is why have the OEM fan spinning blowing cold air the engine when at start up it doesnt need to. With electric fans they will turn on with a switch or at a cetain coolant temp.

 

Is there a way we can disable the cooling fan from running? Like unplug?

I plug in my block heater overnight and the coolant temp will be around 100 degree F.

 

No problem driving in TH, its actually better fro the truck than TH off. With your truck its just locking out OD so unless you really need to go over 55-60 mph no problem. Same with using 2nd gear if your speeds are limited to 45 mph and under. You would manually downshift on a steep hill at 40 mph why not on the flat to get the rpms up?

Piston rings and oil take sthe brunt of these short runs because the cylinder never warms to adequate levels to combust all the fuel and oil get spolluted with fuel and moisture. The lack of temp alos tends to carbon the injector tips and diffues the spray pattern more than is good for it.

If you unplug the fam its running purely in viscous mode and cold should only be about 20% effective up to around maybe 40% warm. The other thing you can do is just remove the fan. As long as you have minimal airflow across the radiator the engine will never overheat unloaded unless you idle it too long.

 

yeah i know what i have to do to help it out with temps 30 or lower. thats where the block heater or coolant heaters come into play. but i was curious what i can do when its temps are around 60s and plugging in a block heater is just weird at those temps. seems like just letting it idle longer is cheapest way to go. ill drive it with O/D off and see how that works out. Also try the 5w-40 to see how that helps. and im not unplugging the fan everytime i got a short trip. ill look into the electric fans but i heard draw backs when towing but since i dont tow, i dont see a issue. If everyone thinks of anything else. fire it out there.

 

no_6_oh_no,

Good to know regarding T/H. For kicks, I drove it in today in 2nd. Not as revvy as I thought it would be. It's all surface streets and I didn't get over 45mph.

Regarding the injectors carboning up, what are your thoughts about the dealer service of "injector cleaning". They claim to use a chemical that will clean up carbon deposits. Most on this forum think it's snake oil - but a few believe that it works. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?

 

Well, it is not neccessarily snake oil because it does work, rather, the concept and cost of the operation is nothing but fluff. What most dealers get to do it is excessive, and, a week later all the effects are negated by the driving style.

You can do a lot of the same things with a mix you add to the tank yourslef. Marvel Mystery Oil is a great product for doing this and partnered with Power Service works quite well for additional cleaning, lube, and cetane boosting.

I do a 50-50 mix of towing and commuting. I run 10-12 oz of 96 oz Power Service plus 32 oz of either 2-stroke oil or MMO. Every third mix I swap MMO for the 2-stoke oil. I pulled couple injectors at 180k and they were very clean on the tips. The additives work.

 

I wouldn't worry about it past using a winter front and plugging it in in the AM since the next day you drive far enough to get her good and warm.

No it's not ideal, but if you are that concerned about it your next best option may be to stop car pooling.

 

ill think ill stick with car pooling lol. thanks speedy. if u guys think im good by running it long twice during the work week then hell lets see what happens. Thanks for all the input everyone.