Vehicles That Must Idle For Long Periods Of Time

[BlueOvalFitter]

I am somewhat familiar to what can happen to engine oil and engines internal parts that must idle for long periods of time. For example, police cars, taxi's, and ambulances. IMO, these 3 types of vehicles must idle for very long periods of time due to their nature of work. A police car must idle if at a stakeout, a road closure, a blockade, an accident, etc. A taxi must idle when waiting on a fare, in heavily populated US cities, esp. at airports. An ambulance must idle at a crime scene, an accident, any hospital, etc. We all know how this plays a major part in fuel dilution in the oil and how it then can effect the internal moving parts of the engine. Do police, taxi, and ambulance garages take this into consideration when choosing a motor oil (which I'm sure they do) or, do they take steps to change the oil sooner? Do they ever consider pouring in additives to prolong the oils life?
I would like to hear from those that have to maintain these types of vehicles. How does your garage deal with the excessive idle situation in these engines. Are there a lot of UOA's performed? Is there a special additive you add to prolong the oils life? Do you do shorter than severe OCI's? What effects do you find on the oil AND the engine from excessive idling?

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: BlueOvalFitter
I am somewhat familiar to what can happen to engine oil and engines internal parts that must idle for long periods of time. For example, police cars, taxi's, and ambulances. IMO, these 3 types of vehicles must idle for very long periods of time due to their nature of work. A police car must idle if at a stakeout, a road closure, a blockade, an accident, etc. A taxi must idle when waiting on a fare, in heavily populated US cities, esp. at airports. An ambulance must idle at a crime scene, an accident, any hospital, etc. We all know how this plays a major part in fuel dilution in the oil and how it then can effect the internal moving parts of the engine. Do police, taxi, and ambulance garages take this into consideration when choosing a motor oil (which I'm sure they do) or, do they take steps to change the oil sooner? Do they ever consider pouring in additives to prolong the oils life?
I would like to hear from those that have to maintain these types of vehicles. How does your garage deal with the excessive idle situation in these engines. Are there a lot of UOA's performed? Is there a special additive you add to prolong the oils life? Do you do shorter than severe OCI's? What effects do you find on the oil AND the engine from excessive idling?



Most of them just follow a standard oil change regiment. My soon to be FIL is a EMS director. The ambulances get dealer serviced every 5k.

If you have ever seen the inside of a police cruiser engine at a junk yard you will see that they are almost always spotless under the valve covers.

Engines that run all the time idling and then at full throttle multiple times a day stay very clean. It's hard for moisture and fuel to build up in engines that always stay at operating temperature.

 

[leemajors]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
My soon to be FIL is a EMS director. The ambulances get dealer serviced every 5k.


My agency PMs every 3k (F450 V8 turbos) erroneously, but should be monitoring engine hours. Agencies with competent services department work on that standard.

 

[shortyb]

Been doing police work for over 32 years now, and current/ former agencies both do things about the same. Cruisers get oil and filter change around 3K regardless. Cheapest spec synthetic for our cars now, mostly O'Reilley's, in the past conventional dino. No chance of any additives as they all want to keep the prices at bare minimum. Did do a UOA some time back for grins and found things very normal. Surprisingly, no fuel either.

Recently, the 5.7 in my Charger had to get the right side rebuilt due to design defect in oiling system that starves that side. 75K and it was extremely clean. Not even slight varnish stains. No visible wear on any components that I saw either. This thing has seen endless hours of idling with intermittent bursts of WOT to chase down miscreants. Hasn't seemed to be worse for wear.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Basically what you're stating is, even though these engines must idle for long periods of time, an "Italian Tune Up" helps keep the oil from diluting?

 

[hpb]

I am friends with a mechanic from a police garage. Police vehicles here get the same servicing as a regular civilian vehicle would. For most of them, that means 15,000km service intervals, with the cheapest bulk oil they can get. The vehicles are usually sent to auction just before they hit 100,000km, and it's almost unheard of for any to suffer engine issues before then. I know of a few people with ex-police cars, they continue to run well for many years, so I'd have to conclude that all the idling doesn't do them one bit of harm.

 

[1JZ_E46]

Idling is really only hard on more race-spec engines with stiff valve springs, as the cam lobes are moving so slow they can wipe the oil off the follower (assuming non-roller valvetrain) at low speeds, creating increasing wear. Most engines these days are have roller valvetrains and can idle all day long.

 

[Panzerman]

Our company trucks idle literally all day in dusty conditions and just get regular 5000 mile oil changes and maintenance per manufacturers intervals. Most if not all go 200,000 miles. The transmissions always go before the motors. None of mine every even used oil and these are all quick lube oil changes.

 

[shortyb]

Originally Posted By: BlueOvalFitter
Basically what you're stating is, even though these engines must idle for long periods of time, an "Italian Tune Up" helps keep the oil from diluting?

Seems to be the case. That and they are always at operating temps so there is no cold start enrichment. Most don't get shut down many times like a "normal" car does either which can cause fuel leakdown.

 

[Colt45ws]

My old police cruiser came with varnish...When I get it back from my friend I will take a picture. I havent been able to make it better, or worse. I dont think the engine is any worse for it, though.

 

[OneEyeJack]

One company here that builds and services microwave towers worked out a scheme where they change oil based on gallons of fuel used. More idling, less movement is compensated by tracking fuel not time or mileage. There work out in the desert a lot and keeping the a/c going is a big deal. Some of their trucks are set to "idle up" when parked if the temps start to go up. They've worked at this because they have a lot of money tied up in these service vans and pickups.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We run our service vans in one of the toughest duty cycles. They drive at 9000 plus pounds every day in city traffic at peak hours in the Greater Tampa Bay area. Then they work by running 1500 to 1750 rpm to operate cleaning equipment for hours on end. This is repeated for up to two shifts in a day.

Most mfgrs void the warranty for any stationary operation that is not idling only. GM does not.

Our trucks are serviced strictly by the OLM and engine life here is so long it is not an issue. I have sold these vans with up to 500k miles on them with no engine work of any kind, and no smoking, dripping, or oil consumption.

 

[Shannow]

Steve, Was waiting for you to wade into this one...good testimony, and also you have additional heat extraction from the engine cooling system as well don't you ?

 

[Colt45ws]

Yeah, his steam cleaners pull heat from the engine to work. That doesn't mean that they are unloaded by anymeans.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Steve, Was waiting for you to wade into this one...good testimony, and also you have additional heat extraction from the engine cooling system as well don't you ?


Yes. We run a heat exchanger which is about 1 cubic foot and has a ton of coiled copper pipe in it. The water that would normally go to the heater core first goes to this exchanger. If two people work simultaneously off of one truck the thermostat is not even opened. Note this adds about 2 gallons of extra coolant.

There are many other small but significant mods. For instance the fan clutch is no longer thermostatic but centrifugally clutched instead. Tons of heat shielding, etc.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Yeah, his steam cleaners pull heat from the engine to work. That doesn't mean that they are unloaded by anymeans.


What it means is that the engine is often running at below the thermostatically controlled temperature.

Which is the premise for the Sequence IVA wear test, purposely holding the temperature of the oil down to induce wear.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Steve, Was waiting for you to wade into this one...good testimony, and also you have additional heat extraction from the engine cooling system as well don't you ?


Yes. We run a heat exchanger which is about 1 cubic foot and has a ton of coiled copper pipe in it. The water that would normally go to the heater core first goes to this exchanger. If two people work simultaneously off of one truck the thermostat is not even opened. Note this adds about 2 gallons of extra coolant.

There are many other small but significant mods. For instance the fan clutch is no longer thermostatic but centrifugally clutched instead. Tons of heat shielding, etc.


That setup makes working in Florida a plus for the vehicle. I wonder how that system would work in a Montana winter? It wouldn't do the engine any good.

 

[sw99]

My work car is on a 5k PM for oil changes. I usually do that in 2.5 months. 2010 CVPI with 80k and 780 idle hours.

 

[1JZ_E46]

These posts seem to point to the saying, "75% of engine wear occurs during warmup" actually being true.

 

[ShotGun429]

I Drive (Daily Driver) a 2006 Crown Vic (Ex Police) with 102,000 miles PLUS 6640 idle hours (Ford fleet says each idle hour equals 33 miles of driving) and seems fine with no oil burning and runs great. I was very leery at first when i bought this used police duty car, idling doesn't do as much engine
damage if maintained right.