Long periods of idling. How bad is it for a modern engine?

[BobandWeave]

I have a van I use as an RV. I try to travel only in mild temps. But because of the long trips I make (thousands of miles all over N. America), I could find myself surprised by a heatwave somewhere.

I'm wondering if I run into a heat wave, could I simply idle the van and use the dash air conditioning without consequence? (The dash AC is powerful enough to keep the entire van cool, even during hot weather.)

For me, I'm thinking this could be the same as a police car or ambulance, or municipal vehicle some of which I see idling all the time. I've also heard that in the very far north (the Arctic), people idle their cars overnight so they don't have to worry about being able to start their cars in the morning).

I'm getting older and don't do well in the heat. I'm ok to pay a little more in gas and perhaps in maintenance to avoid overheating my body. I'm not frequently in places that will offer shorepower.

I'm just wondering what hours of idling will do to the engine.

The engine in question is the Chrysler RAM Pentastar 3.6L gas engine. I use the recommended weight synthetic oil with change intervals at or shorter than recommended times. And when I know that I've idled it for days of air conditioning, I'd change it more frequently.

 

[hemitom]

You really answered your own question.
Police cars can idle for hours on end and most are never turned off during a shift hence the heavy duty cooling systems not sure about your R.V but pretty sure the heating and cooling system are built to handle this type of use.
Myself i would be inclined to run a 5w30 in your type of use.

 

[spasm3]

I think i might not be good for the hemi engines.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The xterra in my signature which has 390k miles also has 100’s of idling hours on it. Short OCI is your friend with that type of use I believe.

 

[Chris142]

You really answered your own question.
Police cars can idle for hours on end and most are never turned off during a shift

And when they get sold with 100k miles or more they run another 200-300k as a taxi

 

[Cujet]

What year is your 3.6L? It is generally a good engine, although if you hear ticking, cam rollers can fail and take out the camshaft on some years. As always, the use of a quality synthetic, with adequate viscosity, and frequent oil changes (I suggest 5000 miles) will help eliminate risk here. Remember, today's direct injection engines often have fuel dilution (of the oil) also, the evaporated by products of the fuel and soot/carbon are not lubricants. So even if your oil level does not climb, circulating typical contaminates for 5000 additional miles is a good way to ensure premature wear. Clean oil goes a long way on to ensuring success on some engines. Yours is among them.

I agree with the assessment above, a very high quality synthetic 5W-30 oil is a minimum choice for a severe use schedule. Especially under hot conditions.

Idling is generally not hard on engine components.

 

[ls1mike]

There are Caprices coming out of police service with 15,000 to 20,000 hours on the engine. Some of those have 10,000 idle hours. GM say each 1 hour of idling is equal to 33 miles.

 

[Soft Cars]

As long as you're with the vehicle and can keep your eyes open to watch the coolant temperature, you're fine.

 

[thunderfog]

With DI, aren't you exacerbating fuel dilution with lots of idling? Or is that engine older/port injected?

 

[atikovi]

The xterra in my signature which has 390k miles also has 100’s of idling hours on it.

That's hardly anything. The police car I sold with 130K had over 10,000 idling hours.

 

[wag123]

As long as your cooling and charging systems are up-to-snuff and your fluids are topped off you really shouldn't have a problem. I have done this same thing many times in my van. If you are planning to sleep in it while it is idling I would strongly advise that you purchase and use a portable battery powered carbon monoxide detector. Also, as long as you are not parked in a dangerous area I advise that you leave your doors unlocked so that a passerby can get you out of there if they spot your vehicle on fire (or smoking badly).

 

[Escape08]

Long idles with A/C on all the time hot temps, it's hard to predict

 

[tnt_motorsports]

the 3.6L Pentastar is a port injection engine so fuel dilution is going to be minimal IMO.

FWIW, I run our T&C with a 3.6L until the EVIC OCI comes on. This has been in the range of 7.5k to 9.5K depends on driving conditions. I use full synthetic oil in a 5w30 viscosity. Currently fill is Citgo 5w30 FS HM.

Just my $0.02

 

[PontiacHO]

Doesn’t hurt the engine as much as all the other components under the hood. Shortens the life of alternators, electric cooling fans, AC compressors, and transmission fluid…
As some have been mentioned LE vehicles and first responder vehicles are equipped with heavy duty cooling and electric systems. Standard vehicles aren’t unless they have a tow/camper package.
Pop the hood and let the heat escape if possible. We used to remove the weather strip where the hood seals against the windshield cowl, louver ambulance hoods, and add oil coolers to some vehicles that otherwise didn’t come with them from the factory. If we found any vehicles showing signs of heat issues on wiring, fuel lines, and AC hoses we would add header wrap to shield against the extreme under hood heat.

 

[JavierH19]

It doesn't matter that much for you because you use it for long trips. Any fuel that's in the sump during an idle period is gonna get flashed off pretty soon. It's only an issue when you drive it 20 minutes at a time, that's when the dilution compounds. Fuel dilution is also bad for high viscosity index oils that use a lot of polymers as gasoline breaks them down and thins the oil out more.

I say use a full syn 10w-30. Less viscosity improvers since it has less need for them. 10w-30's can have a slightly lower KV 100 while still being 0.1 hths higher at the same time compared to 5w-30. I'm using Valvoline's oil as an example since they post the hths for their oils. Less polymers is good if you don't need them.

 

[PWMDMD]

Vehicles are tools to be used. While we're all here because we want to maximize our time/mileage/investment in things that use motor oil, the point of owning a vehicle is it does work for us to improve our lives. If you need to idle to keep cool and that will improve your life then I say have at it. If it's working well it should have negligible impact.

 

[thastinger]

I have a van I use as an RV. I try to travel only in mild temps. But because of the long trips I make (thousands of miles all over N. America), I could find myself surprised by a heatwave somewhere.

I'm wondering if I run into a heat wave, could I simply idle the van and use the dash air conditioning without consequence? (The dash AC is powerful enough to keep the entire van cool, even during hot weather.)

For me, I'm thinking this could be the same as a police car or ambulance, or municipal vehicle some of which I see idling all the time. I've also heard that in the very far north (the Arctic), people idle their cars overnight so they don't have to worry about being able to start their cars in the morning).

I'm getting older and don't do well in the heat. I'm ok to pay a little more in gas and perhaps in maintenance to avoid overheating my body. I'm not frequently in places that will offer shorepower.

I'm just wondering what hours of idling will do to the engine.

The engine in question is the Chrysler RAM Pentastar 3.6L gas engine. I use the recommended weight synthetic oil with change intervals at or shorter than recommended times. And when I know that I've idled it for days of air conditioning, I'd change it more frequently.

I would keep a log of idle hours, its not going to hurt it to run it to run the AC inside....but 100 AC running hours might be the rough equal to 5K miles of driving. Maybe change the oil every outing? I used to do that with our Yamaha 3000ISEB generator that we took to run out toy hauler...just changed the oil when we got back from the trip. Some trips it would eco mode for 100 hours and some trips it would run the AC for 50...didn't worry much about it.

 

[JWC86]

I idle my truck for over 1000 hours a year. It’s also a simple port injected motor. You will be fine.

If your doing it a lot, log the hours and change the oil every 200hrs.

 

[ctechbob]

I think i might not be good for the hemi engines.

Pretty much all of our V8 Chargers tick like mad. Pretty sure we only have about 6 more in service and those are slated to be disposed of this year. Don't think we had any outright failures, but they do sound like they're on their last legs.

 

[Lubener]

Installing a window a/c in your favorite room makes more sense than sitting in your running van all day and risk sucking in CO fumes with the a/c..