I have gone through like 20 pages of old threads, and all the engine idle threads get distracted before a good answer seems to show up.

so the question is, if the engine is idleing between 1,100 and 1,500rpm's how long can the engine idle (safely) I know there is a risk of injector wear down, and some cylinder issues, but everyone seems to think that it is when the engine is in normal idle of 750rpm that those problems become more apparent.

would 8 hours be bad at 1500rpms?

 

I ran mine for 27 hrs at normal idle (and the usual hi idle cycling) with no ill effects. Don't recomend it but it was necesary at the time.

Cya

 

As long as you can keep the water temp above 165 degrees then it should be Ok to run the engine between 11-1400 RPM's for 8 hours. I don't know why you would want to with the price of diesel being so high. Anyway IIRC the main thing is to keep the coolant and engine temp up so that you don't wet stack the engine. Also I do believe that at those engine speeds it keeps the oil flowing to the turbo so that the bearing don't burn up. Oh if you have an auto trans make sure its in N (set the emergency brake) and not Park as trans fluid does not flow in Park and it could burn up your trans if you left it running in park for 8 hours.

 

no kidding, I just wanted a solid answer because I still havent found the solution yet.

thanks once again DBLR.

 

The solution to What?

 

I guess I worded it poorly,

I was looking for a more in depth answer about what to do when idleing, and what the affects were, I had heard once before that I could idle it in neutral (as long as the rpms were above 1,000) but wanted to tripple check, so I am glad you chimed in with the same answer. most of the other posts got too distracted before someone could come along and give a solid answer about the do's and dont's engine idle. my buddy is a diesel mechanic on the slope in AK (he is the one who gives me diesel advice), and obviously their trucks run 24/7, but you cant take their word for idle advice, cause it aint their personal trucks idleing, so they dont care much.

I am sure that the great engine idle debate could last an eternity

 

The reason I know some about idling is back when I drove OTR I idled a Cummins 350 for about 4 hours and a short time later the turbo failed. I was told it was because oil did not flow to it very well when idling at 750 RPM's and back then it cost the boss $350.00 to have it rebuilt and I got by back side chewed out big time.

Like I said it is my understanding that as long as you keep the engine and coolant temp up (so as to not wet stack it) you should not hurt the engine by running it at 11-1400 RPM's. I idled my main truck that I drove every winter (between 12-1400 RPM's when I had to sleep in it for up to 8 hours at a time as requested by the boss) and that engine never had any problems at all in the 150,000+ miles I put on it.

BTW our diesel price has jumped up to $3.95 in Clear lake truck stop but Mill Fleet Farm is at $3.87 in Mason City

 

When I was driving big trucks I always kept the RPM at 1000 - 1500 (depending on how cold the air temp.) when I was waiting for a load, sleeping on the side of the road, etc. Never shut it down either, just let 'er run for the whole trip, if possible. If you don't idle up to a thousand or more the fuel will pool on the pistons and wash down the cylinder walls. I got a couple of 'atta boys' from the fleet maintenance manager for getting so many miles out of the engines in the trucks that were assigned to me.

 

i kinda wish I had the high idle feature. as it stands, I took a wooden dowl, cut it to length, and use my trucks electric seats to adjust the RPM works like a champ though!

thanks for the info guys.


DBLR--

we hit 3.96, I saw 3.87 at hyvee, kinda weird that it was that different.