Well its supposed to get to 0 degrees tonight, so its all pluged in and what not. My question is i dont like getting in a cold cab(and i refuse to scrape ice, thats what a defrosters for), anyways would it be bad to let it idle for oh say 20-25 minutes? That would be with the high idle on, also what rpm's should i set it at?
Thanks

 

mine idles at 1200-1400 for as long as an hour sometimes...50,000 miles and no problems.

 

Well, it's supposed to be 30*F here tonight, and I can't abide a cold cab either... so I won't be leaving the house tomorrow!

 

You can idle it all day long if you keep the high-idle engaged; that's what it was designed to do!

 

LOL,, my truck idles for hours sometimes,,, and I dont even panic about pluging in my truck till it is around -20,, these engines have great lubrication and the grid heaters will let it start even down to -40 without being plugged in,, trust me it has been done, (by accident)

Kevin

 

yea i know...if it hits the 30's us texans are gonna flip out! I still have my AC on in my apartment!

 

Im in Columbus and I had to turn it back on 3 days ago! This weather is redonkulous!

 

Crazy Canadians! I started it once at -5 or -10(i dont think it was pluged in) and it sounded like the batteries were dead! Although it did fire. I just figure it will be easier on the engine and warm up faster.

Just wait till oil pressure come up to high idle(20 seconds or so?)? 1200-1400 is the ticket? Thanks!

 

My truck idles HOURS on end while I sleep at rest breaks, fuel stops etc........... winter for heat and summer for AC ............... I think there was a stretch last winter where it ran for 10 days solid, never shut it down to fuel or rest while on the road doing a trip!

PS I haul horses for a living

 

FINALLY!!!!

a thread about idleing with some common sense!

my freind owns his own surveying business and there are times when, like jhardwick stated, that his trucks (1st,2nd and 3rd gen) have been running for days ...

there was a tsb from cummins about extended idle in ARCTIC CONDITIONS bending valves and every internet expert since then has warned that extended idle will kill these motors ...

grid heaters in my '91 quit working for a couple of days and of course i figured this out on a -13 degree day

had to crank and crank and when she finally fired it sounded like it would crack the block in half ...

i let her run for the next 4 days until it warmed up and the weekend came around ... at which point i found the ground had come off the grid heater

a little RED loc-tite ensured that wouldn't happen again

but don't worry someone will come along and tell you that the owners manual says "not to idle longer than 2 minutes" or something to that effect

 

Besides, if it's that cold, the engine will high idle anyhow - no worries!

 

Personally,

I dont like to idle mine more then 4-5 mins after startup, at any temperature. Thats when the most wear will happen. A cold diesel engine will hardly make any heat, for complete combustion, Gumming injectors, washing cylinder walls, etc, With or without the use of a block heater/ Espar.

Mine idles at 800 for two mins, speeds up to 1000 for a couple more mins (a good time to scrap ice/snow off windows if needed) , then drive off. Not WFO

Once a diesel is up to operating temp, I will use the fast Idle, 1300+ for hours at a time if needed, keeping the defrost/ac on will also work the engine a little.

 

I dunno, I have 250,000 miles on original injectors, and oil samples always come back good. I send a sample off every third oil change.

 

The truck in cold weather will automatically idle up to 1000RPM, which is not considered idling by cummins. Cummins considers idling at lower than 1000RPM, so your truck is high idling and that is perfectly fine for the truck. let her warm up.

 

does the truck go into high idle on its own or is there something i have to do???