I work at an RV dealership and alot of our diesel pushers owners manuals say not to idol for more than 15 minutes, these are cat and cummin motors. Is it alright to idol a duramax or is it bad?

as long as you keep the temps up its not horrible, the oil pressure is kind of low though at idle

this seems to come up often

from what i have read you better shut these things off at stoplights

and from my experience, every construction sight i have been on operators start their diesels as soon as they get on the job.
they may let that thing idle for an hour before getting on the thing

this seems to come up often

from what i have read you better shut these things off at stoplights

and from my experience, every construction sight i have been on operators start their diesels as soon as they get on the job.
they may let that thing idle for an hour before getting on the thing

:lol:

Gee....makes ya wonder why they put "high idle" in the DIC as a changeable option..??

Idling will not harm your engine. PERIOD.!

stk

Allow me to weigh in here. Extensive and prolonged idling can cause issues.

Here's the bad news.
Fuel dilution of your engine oil can be direcly effected by extensive idling. The cylinder pressure is not as great at idle, and that creates a condition where the piston rings don't seal quite as well, and so some excess fuel washes down the walls. The more fuel gets into your oil, the greater the effect of degrading the oil; and it doesn't take too much. Just a few percentage points of fuel are enough to start the negative effects.

The idling also can tend to create a condition known as "wet stacking". Wet stacking is a condition in diesel engines where all the fuel is not burned and passes into the exhaust side of the turbocharger, and further into the exhaust system. This occurs not only at idle, but sometimes under low load conditions (say less than 25% load). This is partly why people who drive a diesel truck as a daily commuter end up having performance issues and getting "codes" on the MIL/CEL. You're not "working" a diesel by running stop/go driving, or running unloaded down the highway at 55 mph.

Here's the good news.
With all this being said, there are ways to mitigate the issues. One, a used oil analysis can monitor the condition of your oil. I'm not saying to change oil every 3k miles, I'm saying keep an eye on the fuel percentage in your oil; the analysis lab should be able to warn you before excess fuel becomes a problem, then change your oil.

Keep your injection system in good working order. I'm not a huge fan of additives, but diesel fuel treatment is a good idea. Use a quality product from a well know source such as Stanadyne, Power Service, or others in your area.

Also, to reduce the effects of wet stacking, drive your truck hard every once in a while. Get it hot (not overheat it, but good and hot). Tow some stuff with it; that's what it's for.

Overall, it's not going to destroy your diesel engine by letting it idle, but you shoud be aware of the issues and how to avoid them, or reduce their effects. There are millions of diesel engines around the world that idle every day, some for long periods of time, and they are still running.

Use high idle when you must but otherwise, I'd shut it off. During idle, the combustion chamber pressure and temps drop (like said above) and not only is oil dilution a issue but the lose in pressure means a drop in cylinder temps which in turns causes excess soot build up in all the places it shouldn't be (valves, ring lands, injectors, oil etc).

Cat, Cummins, and Detroit all have excessive idle time listed as a warranty exclusion for oil usage concerns. That means a 3406 E comes in using too much oil and I pull the idle history and it's above a certain percentage,,,, claim denied!! If idleing your engine was good for it would they do this??

What do you consider an advantage of leaving it idleing all the time anyways??? It's just wasting fuel and causing undue wear and build up in your engine.

so if i read this right i need a fuel in oil sensor :(

the question was does it hurt the duramax?

i want to see the test on a brand new duramax that has done nothing but idle for 2 years, tear the engine down to see what the damage is..

can the same computer that tells you how long i idle tell the timing to advance to raise cylinder pressure?

im no mechanic but this sounds like manufacturers are just finding ways to void warranty.

Go to any truck stop with sleeper rigs and see how many are ideling or "Idoling" if you're a fan of the show. :) Sorry I couldn't help it.

I'd say bang on the door and ask the driver how long thier truck has been idleing, but they may mistake ya for a lot lizard. :)

" want to see the test on a brand new duramax that has done nothing but idle for 2 years"

Haha... I did it. Didn't tear down the engine, but its still going strong. My old work truck was an 03 GMC crew cab short box 4x4 SLT, had just under 10000 hours on it and only about 60000km.... average of 6km/h. Thats a lot of idle time. The only driving it saw was around the mine, intersite and to town and back once in awhile. There were stretches where it ran for atleast a week without stopping. And on cold days I'd often let it run for the 12 hours I was away from site.

I dont know about damage to the motor. This is all regular idle, no high idle feature. The truck still drives the same as it did when it was new, no loss of power or anything. Maybe if I hooked it up to something really heavy I would say different but it doesnt burn oil or smoke or any signs of not being in good condition. Original injectors too.

On my current truck I'm not afraid to let it idle. I modded the high idle to come on at my command rather than by temperatures. High idle helps with quite a few things, burns more fuel though.

" want to see the test on a brand new duramax that has done nothing but idle for 2 years"

Haha... I did it. Didn't tear down the engine, but its still going strong. My old work truck was an 03 GMC crew cab short box 4x4 SLT, had just under 10000 hours on it and only about 60000km.... average of 6km/h. Thats a lot of idle time. The only driving it saw was around the mine, intersite and to town and back once in awhile. There were stretches where it ran for atleast a week without stopping. And on cold days I'd often let it run for the 12 hours I was away from site.

I dont know about damage to the motor. This is all regular idle, no high idle feature. The truck still drives the same as it did when it was new, no loss of power or anything. Maybe if I hooked it up to something really heavy I would say different but it doesnt burn oil or smoke or any signs of not being in good condition. Original injectors too.

On my current truck I'm not afraid to let it idle. I modded the high idle to come on at my command rather than by temperatures. High idle helps with quite a few things, burns more fuel though.



well there you have it real world testing and testimony.

does efi live let you modify hi idle?

Real world test works for me. Besides what do you considder excessive atleast 2+hrs. I think most people don't let them run for that long just based on the price of fuel.

Gee....makes ya wonder why they put "high idle" in the DIC as a changeable option..??

Idling will not harm your engine. PERIOD.!

stk

The dealership ordered me a new transmission today, because i idled my truck in -40 with the elevated idle on... in some cases idling is a bad thing,, in this case its because of design.

"If the elevated idle mode, cabin heater performance is operative and the engine is allowed idle for an extended period of 15 to 30 min. while cooler flow is limited, the transmission may overheat resulting in transmission damage and subsequent failure"

here is the link to the thread i started on it,, and the documents, that lead to my demise.. :mad:.

http://dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219772

I believe both of your provinces is on this list steakman....

I idled mine for hours at a time. When you use your truck like I did you have to or be either hot or cold when its time to sleep.

Where I used to work we had a fleet of d-max's. Everytime we went on road jobs it was nothing unusual for them to idle all day with the a/c on in the middle of a osb plant or sawmill (lots of dust). We even had an old ford crew cab with a turbo diesel in it and some guy forgot about it and left it all night idling didin't hurt it at all.

I work at an RV dealership and alot of our diesel pushers owners manuals say not to idol for more than 15 minutes, these are cat and cummin motors. Is it alright to idol a duramax or is it bad?

I'm familiar with this rqmt on RVs. It's primarily for adequate oil pressure on the top end of Cat and Cummins engines at idle. In fact, they've added a code which tracks idle time for warranty claims. Apparently, they've encountered a fair amount of oil starvation and subsequent wear.

If I remember correctly, you needed to manually kick it into high idle (using cruise control) if the engine was unloaded and idling for more than a minute. Put it somewhere around a 1000 is where we used to lock it in at. All I know is we would take it out of gear, step on the gas a bit, engage cruise, and leave the seat. Was automatic after a while. You DID NOT want to get caught with your motorcoach idling at a normal idle.

I only idol for maybe 1/2- 1 hour at a time, but i do have high idol on now because of winter. Thanks for all your help. I do use additive every 3 fillups and i use power source.

The duramax is the next American Idol??

I only idol for maybe 1/2- 1 hour at a time, but i do have high idol on now because of winter. Thanks for all your help. I do use additive every 3 fillups and i use power source.


heres my gig

aftermarket anything could mess anything up

i bought xtended warranty when i bought my truck, 100,000 all the way around/yoohaa


using additive,bigger tires,aftermarket stereo, you filled up at the wrong fuel station/ whatever..........

be willing to take a warranty claim to court, and let the dealer know thats what u r willing to do

just like anything else

my sister has bigger balls than i do and she gets shit done fellas..........

im still learning, until gm puts into their book no idleing/ idle the **** out of it.

mine idols all the time:p:

As far as soot build up, I don't know where it would come from. The engine isn't hot enough to coke up and isn't burning enough fuel at idle to create excessive soot.

These engines are designed to idle for long periods of time (see trucker reference). Diesel engines have been fitted with PTO's for a long time. These drives are typically used at low engine speeds and loads since they typically only drive a hydraulic pump of sorts.

Also, diesels don't use hardly any fuel at idle. The nature of the engine doesn't require much fuel to keep the cylinder pressure up and the engine running.

Bottom line, idling a d-max won't hurt anything. You're more likely to win the lotto than to break a d-max by idling it too long...

Long idle on big engines is bag because of the low oil pressure but those parameters can be set on computerized engines to go into high idle every so often. As far as the duramax goes I wouldn't leave it idle for hours on end but for short periods it shouldn't hurt.

am i the
only one that thinks this is insane/dont idle a diesel/ if this is bad than **** u all and the engineeres/ somebody better step up.

im selling my diesel and buying gas

get real

for u people that think " dont idle my diesel " are u closet tree huggers?????

if i cannot idle my diesel then i will yank your dog and lick your old lady and take them both

this is like the guy that says he can overheat any lly

my money says i can overheat anything he has to

come and get it for all u lly haters

SOOOOOOOO is your DMAX your ¨IDOL¨?:D

i will say if my funds were unlimited

i can put together a pretty cool ride

i will not take any credit for the performance of my truck/ as i have learned all that from this place.

its like what ron white said "you can fix ugly you can't fix stupid"


i dont claim to be smart //// if i was i would come up with a hud for all of us that need an extra gauge or two. u know hud / heads up display like some vettes have. think about it........ egt/boost/mph/sps/

i know u wonder what sps is / strokes per second/.

well i wonder how the busses, semi, farm equipment, construction equipment that runs all day and idles all day or hours at a time if a driver is sleeping or stopped waiting for a pick up etc. Go to a rest stop, truck stop etc and guys leave them on all night sleeping. what about trains? they don't get shut off for months at a time. Either this is limited to these engines that have a design flaw or lots of diesel drivers are hurting their engines.

heres what i have come to figure out/////watch out/////

idleing an engine is like leaving your old ladies vibrator plugged in

it may overheat and then your in a world of sheet..

for all the sticks in the mud i was just kidding

WoW! talk about your heated debate.. I have never heard of a diesel die'n from Idol. But, I do not claim to know everything. x-treme weather, maybe- 40 to 90 degree, doubtful. Days on end idol'n, maybe- a few hours, doubtful.
That's good enough for me..

WoW! talk about your heated debate.. I have never heard of a diesel die'n from Idol. But, I do not claim to know everything. x-treme weather, maybe- 40 to 90 degree, doubtful. Days on end idol'n, maybe- a few hours, doubtful.
That's good enough for me..


thats my point brother

im a big fan of the duramax

if this thing cant idle forever than i am crushed

i dont care what dodge//ford// can do as i know they suck bad.........

if it's cold enough, i don't see a problem with it because you'd probably hurt(cause undo wear/tear) it more by starting it up/shutting it off all the time (which isn't the smartest idea for a diesel to begin with). summer, no way, no reason to leave it idling (save shorter stops). the stealer ever tells me they're voiding my warranty because i let it idle to long, they'll find their ass in court no doubt

if it's cold enough, i don't see a problem with it because you'd probably hurt(cause undo wear/tear) it more by starting it up/shutting it off all the time (which isn't the smartest idea for a diesel to begin with). summer, no way, no reason to leave it idling (save shorter stops). the stealer ever tells me they're voiding my warranty because i let it idle to long, they'll find their ass in court no doubt


amen brother

anybody else that lets this happen should be shot!!!!!!!!!

wake up and think about it//////// your honor i just let my truck run for a couple days and sheeeeet hit the fan

judge: so were not driving the truck?

plaintiff: no your honor , i just let it idle for awhile

judge: ive heard enough; judgement for plaintiff////// fix his truck, this is ludicrous

IDLE! ...NOT 'IDOL'... Lets start there before we continue.:D

31 posts before anyone said a word ):h

I have a izuzu motor in my hitachi EX160 excavator that has 650hrs and I would guess 200+hrs was idle time, because you dig some pipe then wait, load a truck then wait so I would say its all speculation. One other thing is Ive worked with guys that worked in Alaska and they talked about their trucks and machinery running for 3 or 4 months straight. WHERE IS MYTH BUSTERS WHEN YOU NEED THEM

WHERE IS MYTH BUSTERS WHEN YOU NEED THEM
I would love to see that episode! send it in

Go to any truck stop with sleeper rigs and see how many are ideling or "Idoling" if you're a fan of the show. :) Sorry I couldn't help it.

I'd say bang on the door and ask the driver how long thier truck has been idleing, but they may mistake ya for a lot lizard. :)


i noticed it from the begining

but who is perfect?????

IDLE! ...NOT 'IDOL'... Lets start there before we continue.:D


so i see u want to have a spelling contest!!!!!

ill play

I never said it will kill your engine to idle it but it MAY shorten it's long, healthy life. Excessive idling at say 60k may lead to earlier excessive oil usage. Say if someone doesn't idle much more then needed they may not start using some oil till 300k and someone who never shuts it off may notice some oil usage at 250k. If you need to idle your truck to stay warm or cool or are just waiting for a short time to get a soda from a store,, let it idle if you wish. My beef is with the guys who let it run while they go into a sit down type restaraunt and let there truck idle for an hour, "cause it's a diesel" and can't really tell you why there doing it other then someone's uncle's grandpa's dad told them too cause that's what he did to his 1950s model Mack.

If you don't need to let it idle, (or are only doing it for a short time) why idle it????

I weighed in with an earlier post, but somthing occured to me after reading madmatt's post.

I had presumed that the idling was for some reasonable benefit, such as keeping the occupant(s) warm/cool. Or, perhaps to avoid really frequent start/shutdown cycles that would strain the starter and batteries. Or perhaps ancillary equipment is running, such as an ambulance, or a support rig of some type. In these types of scenarios, the benefits probably outweigh the risks, and with good maintenance, the issues can be mitigated.

However, if someone is just letting it idle beause "the big rigs do it" and it looks "cool" sitting at the resturaunt, that's just wasting fuel, and that's plain silly. Now fuel dilution and wet-stacking are without merit. Here, the risks outweigh the reward.

I have idled my truck almost every day for 3 to 5 hours per day mon thru fri
to run a 120 vac generator from the sepenteen( cant spell) belt. its a 06, i have 50K miles now
it idles at stock idle rpm of about 500 or so, and im out in the middle of the desert whear its 115 deg F. all the time with absolutly no air flow into the front end what so ever except what the fan pulls in.

in the beginning I would go and check it to make sure it wasnt overheating, and It never did not one time, I will hear the viscus fan clutch locking up and really pulling in some air from time to time.

my last oil analiss did detect a very very small amount of fuel in the oil, but WELL under the danger zone and Im at 9800 thousand miles now on this oil change.

I change at 10,000.

Rick

As far as soot build up, I don't know where it would come from. The engine isn't hot enough to coke up and isn't burning enough fuel at idle to create excessive soot.

These engines are designed to idle for long periods of time (see trucker reference). Diesel engines have been fitted with PTO's for a long time. These drives are typically used at low engine speeds and loads since they typically only drive a hydraulic pump of sorts.

Also, diesels don't use hardly any fuel at idle. The nature of the engine doesn't require much fuel to keep the cylinder pressure up and the engine running.

Bottom line, idling a d-max won't hurt anything. You're more likely to win the lotto than to break a d-max by idling it too long...

Any time diesel fuel burns, it creates soot. The temp and pressure that are there while the engine is loaded is greater therefore the rings seal better and prevent it from getting past. With out that tight seal,, more soot will pass. Will it break by idling,,, NO. Is it good for it, NO. What good is letting it idle all day anyway (unnessacarily),, To save a couple hundred doller starter??? Cold starting is hard on an engine but after that, your good to go till it gets cold again.

WHO CARES! I like to leave the truck run just to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer if I go somewhere, regardless if its my 07 duramax or my 98 burban. If I let it run for 3 hours straight or 3 days straight, when something goes wrong with the truck I am the one pickin up the tab on the repairs, not someone else. I am the one paying for the fuel in the truck not someone else. So when someone ask me why I leave it running I ask them ask them if they want to pay for my diesel next time I fill up just to piss them off. Its my truck, its my bills to pay when something goes wrong and its my diesel fuel I have to pay for when I go to fill it up. Oh and yes I do leave it run when I go in somewhere for an hour or so when its cold outside.

That's fine for you. I am just addressing the question that was originally asked.

That's fine for you. I am just addressing the question that was originally asked.

sorry that wasnt address at you, I was making that comment in general. these "should I leave my truck idle" or "does idleing the truck matter" threads are getting old. people need to search these things before posting. although sometime I re-ppost topics that have already been talked about. o well

I agree on the search. I know I've gave my $.02 worth on this before.

im friggin flipping.......... i addresed this topic earlier in the thread,, and noone seems to care.,.. and today my cooler started pouring out fluid,, .. they gave me a rental ... the rear tire is flat 1 hour later,, and the check engine light and change oil dic is going offf..... i feel very unappreciated..

well if i am running in and out of a store etc I would even leave my gas car on now and then if its very cold or hot out. If I was going in to sit and eat or more then a few min etc then I would shut it off. I have let a car or truck idle for an hour or more at a time when I have had my black lab with me. But that isn't typical. At $3.69 a gallon right now for diesel it becomes pretty expensive to just let it run for no reason.

I am a heavy equipment mechanic, my work truck idles all day everyday six days a week. I do this for a.c. heat, air compressor , or to run my crane. problems so far- 0. my equipment idles alot too. It is the nature of the work. my cranes all have cummins, cats, and detroit's. some of these have 20,000 + hours on them, and if I had to guess 80% of that is idleing. I had a bunch of equipment on a mine job in yellow knife canada, that never got shut done for 6 + months. Only for an hour or so to service them @ 250 hrs on the hr meter. the safe rule of thumb for oil pressure is 10 psi for every 1000 rpm. I don't think I have seen too many engines with 10 psi at idle. this is my educated opinion, take it or leave it, I'm fine either way.

IDLE! ...NOT 'IDOL'... Lets start there before we continue.:D

How about IDYLL (look it up):anitoof:. And sorry for the :offtopic: post.

I'd like to clarify... Anything burning hydrocarbon can create soot. You only create soot if the fuel is not completely burned, or do not have enough air for complete combustion. At idle, the d-max has more air available than if you were on the throttle (hence the black cloud of soot when mashing the throttle). At idle, the d-max is as efficient as it gets, i.e. the highest air/fuel to promote the cleanest combustion. The only thing that hurts a stock truck here is that the EGR will cycle at idle and that can cause some sooting.

If you don't want to idle your truck, that's fine. My point is that you aren't going to get any more soot in the oil by idling than if you drive with a lead foot all day or have any power adders...

Talk about beating a dead horse.
Unless someone has proven documented evidence to post up for either side of this debate for a universal yes/no answer, lets just end it with a big ol' draw. Each individual will have some variant of a (similar) situation which they would probably leave it idling for, unless it was longer than such and such a time period then they'd most likely shut it off, etc etc etc etc etc. there is no right, wrong, yes, no, win, loose. whether you idle your truck is completely and 100% up to you because, after all... you own it, don't you?

Talk about beating a dead horse.
Unless someone has proven documented evidence to post up for either side of this debate for a universal yes/no answer, lets just end it with a big ol' draw. Each individual will have some variant of a (similar) situation which they would probably leave it idling for, unless it was longer than such and such a time period then they'd most likely shut it off, etc etc etc etc etc. there is no right, wrong, yes, no, win, loose. whether you idle your truck is completely and 100% up to you because, after all... you own it, don't you?

X2

Talk about beating a dead horse.
Unless someone has proven documented evidence to post up for either side of this debate for a universal yes/no answer, lets just end it with a big ol' draw. Each individual will have some variant of a (similar) situation which they would probably leave it idling for, unless it was longer than such and such a time period then they'd most likely shut it off, etc etc etc etc etc. there is no right, wrong, yes, no, win, loose. whether you idle your truck is completely and 100% up to you because, after all... you own it, don't you?

Cat, Cummins and Detriot all have Documents specifing the importance of not idling too much. I don't work for Cat anymore therefore i no longer have that notice.

Cat, Cummins and Detriot all have Documents specifing the importance of not idling too much. I don't work for Cat anymore therefore i no longer have that notice.

I meant pertaining to our Duramax engines. Last I checked, there aren't any Cats, Cummins or Detroits in our trucks. Duramax engines were specifically designed to be run in light-duty trucks, they aren't retro-engineered from heavy equipment engines. So again, unless there's documentation for a DURAMAX... i'll just leave it at that.

Well since everyone here keeps going back to the trucks they see idling all the time i thought that would sufice. Sorry but i do not have any documentation on that.

I'd like to see the documentation that says idleing an engine for hours on end unneedingly is better for it then shuting it off for a while.

Well since everyone here keeps going back to the trucks they see idling all the time i thought that would sufice. Sorry but i do not have any documentation on that.

I'd like to see the documentation that says idleing an engine for hours on end unneedingly is better for it then shuting it off for a while.
I know my opinion don't mean s*** here but I have to side with madmat here. There is no feasable reason to let your trucks idle needlessly. Research has proven that for every hour of idling the wear on motor equals 50 miles of driving.

i can't beleave i just read 6 pages of nothing,idle it if you want ,who cares