Warming up my truck?

[DLeno]

thermostats have bypasses, so that even when they are "closed" there is still a small amount of water flow through the block, getting cooled by the radiator, and returning. So the winter fronts help the warm-up time in that regard.



I've found the block heater to be a great warm-up time reducer. put a blanket over the block and set the timer to come on at about midnight, and you get 6 hours of warming before you drive off. cuts my warmup time in half.

 

[Tony T.]

Grid Heaters

The 03 Dodge manual makes the statement on the cold start procedure ( below 66*) to allow around three minutes of idle time for the grid heaters to cycle. Would there be rapid wear and tear on the grids if say a person did not let the grids cycle. I know I don't every time let them cycle, but have noticed that mine will quit after around 2 1/2 minutes of idle. ( jump from about 12 volts to 14. 2 volts on the volt meter) I know they automatically shutoff at 18 mph. Curious to know if this could cause problems later on down the road not letting them cycle each time.

 

[Dean Upson]

I am probably dead wrong on this, but I have heard of glow plugs often failing, but I have never heard of a grid failing. I am sure they go, but it is not wide spread.



Dean

 

[wbrown02]

Anyone using pre-oilers in cold country?

Never cold enough here is So Cal to plug truck in at night... But mine sets for several days at a time inside garage... . I do use a pre oiler..... I like having oil pressure before cranking motor... . pre oiler runs on air pressure so no electrical draw. Sounds like it would be just great for cold country use too?Oo. Oo.

 

[DLeno]

hmm. cycling grid heaters. I think that recommendation is for emissions and drivability, not reliability. unless I'm missing something, the more you cycle the grid heaters (turn them on and off) the more stress they get. I think the manual is trying to optimize air intake temperature.

 

[hammersley]

Yes it is..........

I remember reading tests on winterfronts from the 50's (US ARMY Aberdeen Proving Grounds) and teh use of an air movement block WAS indeed significant. True until the TSTAT opens - no coolant is going through the RAD - BUT - the rush or fresh VERY COLD air does cause a WIND CHILL on the block making warm-up times longer. I can't find the study...

 

[XcumminsX]

i dont thing there is a problem warming up... . mine warms up for 15 minutes for a 8 mile trip to work... i do this whenever its below 20 degrees. The 1000 rpm thing kicks on... im not worried

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I believe the reason coolant circulates through the bypass before the T-stat opens is to equalize temperature and eliminate hot spots, which would occur if there was no circulation at all.



XcumminsX, idling 15 minutes every morning for that short of trip isn't very good for your engine at all if you do it all the time, it's a lot better to take off soon after you fire up and warm it up by driving easy.



Vaughn

 

[XcumminsX]

I will take your advice because i know you are way smarter than me with these engines . How about warming it up for 5 minutes? Would that be ok or is that still too much for that trip? I like having heat when i get in. . This morning it was 4 degrees



Nick

 

[DLeno]

I was thinking about this again. Yea, the bypass is there and does allow some water flow -- for hotspots as vaughn said. and the cold air thing makes sense too, so these to factors combine to allow the effectiveness of the winter front: you DO have cooled water entering the engine from the radiator, so the winter front lessens the ability of the radiator to cool that water. and you DO have cold air circulating about, cooling the block, so the winter front reduces air flow in the engine compartment.



another factor might be this: seems to me, unless pellet thermostat technology has changed, that the 'stat doesn't just open suddenly -- it ramps up according to temperature with a certain slope. In other words, the rise time and fall is not zero, in EE terms. So what that means is that the winter front allows the 'stat to operate in a different portion of its behavior curve. Essentially it operates "more open" instead of "almost always closed"



whether or not that matters or is significant I dont know, but it was fun thinking about it

 

[ROCKJEEP]

I have the remote start on my 03. While I am enjoying my coffe I just press the little button and 10 min later walk out the door and warm.

Kory

 

[XcumminsX]

rock. . how far is your commute to work>?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

XcX 5 minutes is a lot better than 15



What would help a lot is take it for a long drive (30+ miles) at least once a week so it gets thoroughly warmed up and you work the engine. Give it some throttle once it warms up and have fun!



Vaughn

 

[DocDetonancour]

Grid heaters?

I asked a Cummins engineer at one of the TDR rallies about various components for reliability. He stated that "it is very unusual to have a problem with the grid heater". I haven't heard of any of the several personal CTD's I know about that have had one fail. I agree that 15 minutes is a lot of idling. Doc

 

[XcumminsX]

hey guys today on my way to work i went out 5 minutes before i had to leave and started it. By the time i got about 2 miles down the road i was starting to get heat, For now on i will only run it on idle for 5 minutes when below 40 degrees. But from 40 and up ill just get it and go no idling. Does that sound good? thanks guys for helping me out.

\

Nick

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Xcummins shorter warmups will help your MPG too. I saw on another thread your said your overhead was showing 11s uncorrected with your 315s, but that should get a bit better with shorter idle times every morning



Vaughn

 

[XcumminsX]

Thanks alot guys from driving it today i checked the overhead and its going up already



Nick

 

[DLeno]

some additional information on warm-up time and the effectiveness of a winter front:



I recently put on a Lund winter front on my 04. Realizing the variability in outside temperature I was not prepared to report a mathematically valid measurement of improved warm-up time. but in the interest of why (theoretically) these are effective, I discovered something via OBD that that I didn't expect: with the Winter front on, my inake air temperature is about 10 degrees warmer.



so it appears, in the interest of fast warm-ups, that the following benefits of the winter front are at work:



1. the air is less turbulant and there is less air exchange under the hood, so the engine block cools less from the ambient air flow



2. thermostats have bypasses, so there is always small amount of water flow between the radiator and engine block even when the thermostat is completely closed



3. intake air temperature is higher, presumedly because a portion of the cold air intake somes from under the hood. I expect this would not be a factor for Scotty III air systems, which are the most effiecient at taking air from the outside instead of under the hood.

 

[TRaddatz]

I'll put it to you this way. Having a winter front makes the difference in driving 10 miles with cold feet, verses have them toasty warm. Keeping the cold air from blowing across the radiator and engine compartment makes it warm up about 3 times faster.

 

[DLeno]

could you expand on how you arrived at the measurements of 3x faster? In my observations, what took 10 minutes before takes 7-8 minutes now. 20-30% improvement I'd say.