Power Stroke idle...?

[TxDieselKid]

A guy that is working with us right now has a power stroke. Since he is just there to make sure nothing goes wrong in, he will sometimes goto sleep in his truck with it running. I know the Cummins cools down to much for that but what about the PS? Does it idle to cool for this as well, some of his naps last 1 1/2 hours.



Just wondering,

Andrew



P. S. if you really want to know about his job it is really cool, But I am currently working at an outdoors ice skating rink in downtown Houston, Texas.

 

[Turbo Thom]

Andrew:



Don't tell um. If he plans on keeping the truck he'll fine out. It ain't good for us and the same goes for him.



. . Preston. .

 

[BigYellowIron]

Its a FORD it can handle it!





Adam

 

[BCFAST]

The cackling should keep the wild animals away at night.....

 

[R.E. Miller]

Just tell him that you didn't know that he was trying to operate a TAR generation plant out of his truck... .

Seriously, tell him to shut the thing down, no reason to waste machinery

Russell

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

If he just likes the sound, here is what you can do for him:



Get an old J&J bandaid box, the kind made of steel. Fill it about 1/8 to 1/4 full with BBs. Shake gently to simulate a powerjoke

 

[TxDieselKid]

Come on guys...

Ford sucks, blah blah blah..... ! If there was no Cummins guess what I would be driving.



Anyways, I am not telling this guy anything, just wondering for my own personal knowledge. He could care less because the company pays for the truck. As far as I can tell, there is no crackling that I have heard. In fact I think mine sounds more like it has that dreaded crackle sound then his Ford, even though our Dodges don't get it.



So 2 people say it's bad and 3 say Ford sucks.



Andrew

 

[Johnboy3]

Andrew, for what it's worth, we have a few of them and they idle almost all day long in the winter. Oil samples have never shown fuel in the oil or any of the other crap everyone talks about. I don't think your friend is hurting anything by idling it for his nap.



My dad's 99 will idle itself up to about 1100 if the coolant temp drops to a certain point. It doesn't have the idle controller or anything special, it just does it by itself. Perhaps all the newer ones do this.



Your friend can also get an idle controller for about $200 from Ford and he can set the idle to what ever he wants.

 

[Chaw]

Yep, the Stroke will idle itself up to 1100 like Johnboy said. If it were mine, I still would not let it idle unless it had a exhaust brake. My brothers 02 PSD will idle with a 250 deg exhaust temp, and may increase to 260-270 when idled up at 1100. Still not enough.

 

[Jim Fulmer]

It may be a ford and mine is a dodge but at least a ford will warm up in the morning, a buddy of mine has a 2001 and his warms up just fine, starts it lets it idle for 10-15 and it's warm. Mine plug it in all night, start it up idle for a min then after 15 min of driving 70 it finally nice and warm in the cab



Jim

 

[RonaldLarson]

Well of course

The Cummins has LOTS more iron to warm up, as in rigidity, long life, etc, etc.

Ron

 

[Texas Diesel]

I remember reading somewhere that in Houston it's illegal to idle a diesel engine for more than 10 minutes. Might be worth checking into.

 

[JConley]

When we were in Colorado last week, I was very happy that I brought the Ford. I started it up, let it idle, and it warmed up faster than the Ram could have on a 100 degree day. For those bashing Ford, remember they outsell Dodge 3 to1. I try to keep our idle times down, but if shutting it down means loosing life support (air conditioning) then it can idle to self destruction for all I care.

 

[LarryB]

Originally posted by JConley

For those bashing Ford, remember they outsell Dodge 3 to1.

JC

Remember, VW sells a lot more diesels than Ford worldwide.

 

[TxDieselKid]

Yeah that sound familer....

Originally posted by Texas Diesel

I remember reading somewhere that in Houston it's illegal to idle a diesel engine for more than 10 minutes. Might be worth checking into.

I posted this about 3 months ago, and it is correct, but no one enforces it. Kinda like those stupid laws that are still around, but still hold up by the letter of the law.



So the Powerstroke will idle itself up to 1100 RPMs, and Dodge can't get the program to work huh? Sounds like Dodge is just playing catchup with the "Real four doors", and now this high idle thing.



Andrew

 

[Texas Diesel]

Re: Yeah that sound familer....

Originally posted by TxDieselKid

Sounds like Dodge is just playing catchup with the "Real four doors"Andrew

And Ford is/was playing catchup with front end styling

 

[RedRam1]

This is a little off-topic, but I thought y'all maybe interested. The Electric Membership Corp. (the power company guys in my hometown) tried F350's with powerstrokes a few years ago. My cousin works for the EMC as a line maintenance technician, he takes his service truck home every evening since he is on call for emergencies most of the time. Anyway, he used to let his Powerstroke idle all night long in the winter because it typically would not start otherwise. We're in the North Ga mountains, and it gets colder here than you might think (it was around 6 degrees the other morning). My cousin said all the EMC guys let their powerstrokes idle all night in the cold weather. They never experienced any maintenance problems because of this, my buddy was the maintenance supervisor at the EMC during this time (real small town), and he said the powerstrokes held up pretty good. The EMC replaced all their powerstrokes with v10 Fords because of the cold start problems.

 

[speedracer]

There's no doubt that extended idling is hard on a diesel, and it will probably shorten the lifespan of the engine. But probably not enough for most people to notice, since the engines last so long anyway.



I don't let my dodge idle anymore than necessary, and I only idle the big truck when needed for heat or ac, and then I idle it up to about 800 rpm. Anyway, it's better not to idle extensively, but it ain't gonna kill the motor.

 

[CumminsPower98]

idling

The other down side to extended idling that no one has mentioned is lack of good lubrication to such things as lower cylinder walls, cam, valves, etc. I personally stay away from extended idling. I'm sure some engines may be do ok as far as lubrication goes but most of the time there is at least one thing in there that is mostly dependent on splash for proper lubrication.