Went over to neighbors, left my 92 dodge cummins in cold few hours. Went out during coffee and started it up a few minutes before leaving, went back in for a few minutes, conversation got going and I started getting nervous about leaving my diesel dead idle for about a half hour?
Neighbor asked me why I was fretting about my diesel idling. I told him I learned in Bitog a dead idle on diesel is not good. He told me he worked on oil rigs for 20 years, those diesels idled 18 hours then ran full bore until the next two days idle in winter.
He used to do OCs on them, in -40F they put the pails of oil right beside heaters in dog house, got everything ready, they had 5 minutes to change oil in order to get that diesel going again. He said these Diesels go 15000 to 20000 hours with no trouble, either long term idle or working hard. He drives a 99 Dodge Cummins, when he visits here he leaves his idle up a an hour in sub zero with no worries, most I do is ten minutes max up till other day. I dont know what to think winter idle on diesel , summer I dont idle much at all. I couldn't do over 1 hour idle on my diesel.
My brother in law runs two John Deere tractors on feed lot operation, he starts both up in morning in sub zero, they both work periodiclally each day, he never shuts them off, he claims there is more engine damage shutting them off in winter with restarts. Starting cold kills them he maintains, run em. Last year one John Deere burned up, he rented one at $25.00 per hour, it was metered, he would not shut it off in winter, he paid the full amount for all day with lots of idling because of his belief to never shut off a diesel in sub zero. He runs his Deeres for 15000 hours plus doing this.
Gas Patch welders/drillers/maintenance workers here run their diesels all day, they move site to site then idle hours in sub zero, many claim their newer modeled cummins dont maintain heat at idle but they say better to idle cold than cold dead start.
When I speak of dead idle being bad as I have learned in this forum I feel like an alien in my area here on shutting off a diesel in winter. They shake their head.
My 92 12 valve Cummins surprises lots of people, at idle it warms up in sub zero weather, ten minutes the gauge starts to move, neighbor figures I have a good thermostat, lot of farmers/neighbors in my area who run new cummins are very impressed with this as theirs wont heat at all, my antifreeze is at proper full mark with reserve tank too. I am not complaining, must be another benefit of driving the older 12 valve 5.9 Cummins.
My cousin who is a trucker for years now advised me to idle my Cummins till the gauge barely moves as I usually do, my analysis iron count in ppm is around 6 ppm in two consecutive winters doing this in sub zero.
Is a dead idle in winter really bad compared to cold starting it throughout a day, which is worse?
Cyprs
Neighbor asked me why I was fretting about my diesel idling. I told him I learned in Bitog a dead idle on diesel is not good. He told me he worked on oil rigs for 20 years, those diesels idled 18 hours then ran full bore until the next two days idle in winter.
He used to do OCs on them, in -40F they put the pails of oil right beside heaters in dog house, got everything ready, they had 5 minutes to change oil in order to get that diesel going again. He said these Diesels go 15000 to 20000 hours with no trouble, either long term idle or working hard. He drives a 99 Dodge Cummins, when he visits here he leaves his idle up a an hour in sub zero with no worries, most I do is ten minutes max up till other day. I dont know what to think winter idle on diesel , summer I dont idle much at all. I couldn't do over 1 hour idle on my diesel.
My brother in law runs two John Deere tractors on feed lot operation, he starts both up in morning in sub zero, they both work periodiclally each day, he never shuts them off, he claims there is more engine damage shutting them off in winter with restarts. Starting cold kills them he maintains, run em. Last year one John Deere burned up, he rented one at $25.00 per hour, it was metered, he would not shut it off in winter, he paid the full amount for all day with lots of idling because of his belief to never shut off a diesel in sub zero. He runs his Deeres for 15000 hours plus doing this.
Gas Patch welders/drillers/maintenance workers here run their diesels all day, they move site to site then idle hours in sub zero, many claim their newer modeled cummins dont maintain heat at idle but they say better to idle cold than cold dead start.
When I speak of dead idle being bad as I have learned in this forum I feel like an alien in my area here on shutting off a diesel in winter. They shake their head.
My 92 12 valve Cummins surprises lots of people, at idle it warms up in sub zero weather, ten minutes the gauge starts to move, neighbor figures I have a good thermostat, lot of farmers/neighbors in my area who run new cummins are very impressed with this as theirs wont heat at all, my antifreeze is at proper full mark with reserve tank too. I am not complaining, must be another benefit of driving the older 12 valve 5.9 Cummins.
My cousin who is a trucker for years now advised me to idle my Cummins till the gauge barely moves as I usually do, my analysis iron count in ppm is around 6 ppm in two consecutive winters doing this in sub zero.
Is a dead idle in winter really bad compared to cold starting it throughout a day, which is worse?
Cyprs
