Ddge6spdRam

The truck in my sig,when we are plowing with it their is points when we end up sleeping in the truck for 4-5 hours and it is idling you see about 10 diesel and 4 gasser all lined up with the trucks idling and the drivers sleeping in them...

B.Law

Wish I knew then what I know now thanks to this great site. I would let my ex '00 2nd gen idle for serious amounts of time. I would be working at cell sites or microwave hops for an hour or two throughout the day and I would let the ol' girl idle to keep warm, or cool for the summer months. Basically while working she would run non stop, plus some nights while snoozing on long trips. I noticed no adverse effects by insane amounts of idling, I guess I was really lucky over the 2 years I owned the rig. Since gathering knowledge from this site prior to purchasing the 3rd gen, I now idle less and have made a nifty high idle controler from a turn buckle. Wedged between the go pedal and the dash a simple turn takes you from 1000 rpm to 1400 or whatever you want.

Also I notice a lot of you mention to make a hole for the fan with the "home made" cold fronts. Is this a necessity? The Mopar cold front doesn't have an opening for the fan, when closed that is. I have heard the fan spinning like a son of a gun a couple times with the front completey closed. Is this bad for the fan, or do you guys just avoid it all together just for the heck of it?

infidel

Without a hole in the cardboard the fan will lockup since the hub gets hot.

Winter fronts don't cause this problem since air can come in from the bottom of the truck, it's only with something right up against the coolers that this problem occurs.

What's even worse than cardboard without a hole is cardboard that doesn't cover 100% of the coolers, i.e. air can flow though the top, bottom or sides. What happens is that every time a fan blade passes though the airflow it bends a little and eventually a fan blade will break off possibly causing severe damage. This only occurs with metal fan blades, plastic ones can handle the flexing.

cumminsdriver635

My tranny also used to be horrible about the "neutral" thing until it got warm. I changed the fluid, and filter, and put the shift kit in, and it is great now. Every now and then it will do it(worse when cold), but its not NEAR as bad as it was. I also plan to make a high idler for my truck with a solenoid sometime soon hopefully. I dont idle it a lot, but sometimes i do have to leave it running for 30-45min's for things, and i would just like to have it for that.Might just end up with the PVC idea though

Eric

NHDiesel

Thanks guys. I guess, in reality (this isn't a perfect world with electrical outlets everywhere), i have 2 choices- install my electric solenoid and set it to idle at around 1500 rpms, or park the truck for the winter. I guess I'll get this rigged up soon.

Another issue is that I'm impatient...I want to be able to start the truck then come back in the warm house (why i want a remote starter) or be able to drive it. And there is no way I'm going to drive this truck when its cold.

I do have a related question. My wife is probably going to get me a remote starter for christmas. Because the truck requires some throttle to start in cold weather, I assume a remote starter will do me no good without hooking up the high-idle solenoid. What do others do about using a remote starter on a diesel?

Jim

Chrisreyn

Geesh, Thanks for posting this!.... I have left teh sides of the coolers uncovered on purpose so SOME air could get through...
Guess I better get out my razor knife and do some re-engineering on my pizza box........

timcasbolt

Mine starts itself up and idles at 750 for a couple minutes, then kicks itself up to 1000 until I get in and step on the brake. Not sure if the installer had to do anything special to make that happen. Doesn't matter if it was started by the remote or the key. It'll even do it if it just sits idling in park in the cold for a few minutes with the engine hot.

HOHN

To clarify Bill's post-- you just need to make sure that the FAN's circumference is blocked off.

You don't want air getting a straight shot through to cooler to just one part of the fan.


Obviously, the coolers are much larger than the fan, so you can leave a little big of uncovered area around the edges of the coolers without any risk. You do NOT want to have any portion of the fan's swept area uncovered. The fan area needs to be an all-or-nothing thing. Cover it all, or not at all.


EDIT: I run fanless as I've found it helps warmups and hurts nothing. It may even HELP with water pump life (but I don't remember if my fan bolts to the pump like many gassers do).

Running fanless with a winter front is all I need.


jh

HOHN

I'm not sure if my observations are relevant in light of the fact that it's only gotten to about -5F here, so it's not the level of cold you are talking about.

Plug in when you can, and use an oil that starts with 5w in the grade. Any 5w40 will help cold starting, as will a full syn 15W40. Regular dino 15-40s aren't as good in the cold (but with a block heater, should be perfectly manageable).

I like a syn or blend in the winter because I can't count on an outlet nearby to plug in.

As mentioned, good batteries are a must. I've had good results with Red Top Optimas, but Odysseys are great too. Those two are all I will buy now.



Cold idling is bad for your engine. It's not just the "Wet stacking" that occurs; it's the fact that you can get some serious tarring of your valves.

There was a recent post about a bent pushtube. Cummins issued a TSB that linked bent pushtubes specifically to extended cold weather idling. I posted earlier the substance of this TSB, which stated how to avoid the tarring. The TSB concerns engines that are idled for a long time with coolant temps <140. It's states to: run the engine at 2500rpm for 2 minutes, then 3000 rpm for 2 minutes, then 3500rpm for two minutes, or until coolant temps get over 140, THEN shut down the engine.

If you HAVE to idle your truck for a long time in really cold weather, then the "right" way to do it, imo is with an exhaust brake AND a heater like an Espar or Webasto. Using both a brake and a diesel-fired coolant heater would make me fairly confident that I could idle the truck indefinitely with no ill effects other than wasted fuel.

jmo

infidel

I don't do anything, as long as my truck is plugged in it starts right up no matter how cold. Could be you need to bump up your idle.
I don't like the idea of a high idle with a remote, I wouldn't want my rig to go up to a fast idle until the oil pressure is up.

jkitterman

At that temperature, you truck should go right to the 1000 rpm idle when cold started. You should not have to touch the accellerator when starting. NHDiesel, are you including the windchill in your estimated temps? If you are, just use the regular temp. I looked at the averages for your area and it showed above zero for the lows on weather.com Even the records weren't that bad. I really don't think you will have any problems down to -20F. Start it, wait for the grid heaters to stop, about 3 minutes, and drive gently. It's better to warm the engine with a slight load than idle it forever. Using the 5w40 oil helps a lot but I don't think even the Canadians have much trouble with the engine starting. If you have a cab, you could just get a small generator and let it run at work to power the block heater. Something like the smallest Honda is pretty quiet.

Bad Ramer Jamer

You guy's keep saying cycle the grid heater 2 or 3 time's. What does that do.

NHDiesel

I wasn't talking wind chill. I live in Milan now (not Colebrook) and the closest weather station is at the airport. We are up on the hill, which gets colder and more snow. A couple years ago in this same area we had almost a month straight when it didn't get ABOVE zero, and the nights were -20 to -35 that whole time. I remember wanting to snowmobile during the day, and I set a limit for myself...I wouldn't ride unless it was above -10. I only had a few days of riding during that time. Oh, and the record low here is -41. Zip 03588...check weather.com. The lows listed are average lows...4 deg. average low in Jan. But there are many nights of -20 or colder from early jan. through the end of Feb. We've already been having -15 nights here in mid Dec.

Jim

TexasCTD

Wow. I love winter and wish we could get a little more snow here in TX. But dang.....THAT IS COOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD!!! BRRRRR. I think I would rather have to live through our BRUTAL summers than your FROZEN winter.

jrs_dodge_diesel

Quick rundown on the grids :

59°+, ECM doesn't even turn them on, even though you get a 2 second wait to start light.
59-32° - ECM puts the grids into a 10 second on time before starting and will cycle the grids on and off after starting to aid in engine warmup.
32° and below - the grids are turned on for 30 seconds prior to starting, and they cycle after starting to aid in warmup.

To cycle the grids twice simply means to turn the key to ON and wait for the wait to start light to turn off. Then turn key to OFF, and then back on for a second grid heater run. It just puts a bit more warm air into the entire to help it start.