Drivers Idling!!!

[rainman1882]

I have a 1996 F-250 with the 7.3 liter powerstroke diesel. It's very had on the engines to start up and shut down. The turbo needs to have the EGT (Exhaust Gast Temperature) drop before shutting down or you will get deposits on the turbo spindle. This results in costly repairs. A diesel also uses very little fuel at idle. Likewise, they like to warm up and go from there. To start a pickup like mine with a load on without a proper warm up would be suicide for the engine.

The device you were talking about that allows the engine to run while away and then turn off when a designated temp is reached is a "Turbo Nanny", not sure if that is a brand name or generic term. I won't use one as my engine is worth way to much to trust to a machine that could fail.

As far as a cool down time it depends on the air temp and what you were doing prior to stopping. Even after a long trek the temp probe will pull 300 degrees in as little as 10 minutes. The engines do cool remarkably. On a trip across North Dakota on I-94 this last Feb I stopped to take a nap and didn't flip the hi-idle switch (kicks idle from 400 rpm to 1500). Outside air temp was -43 with windchills far exceeding that. My pickup was blowing cold air from the vents within 5 minutes.

My pickup is geared with 4.11 gears and I've been able to pull 21mpg out of it on some trips unloaded. Granted this is awful economy but it's also a 7000 pound pickup that sits high and has large offroad tires. It's possible to eek FE out of the biggest pig.


Hope that helps out with some of the issues surrounding diesels.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by theclencher

This diesel idling thing is a lot of old wive's tales. We've got diesels on the farm, and they get shut down and restarted all the time with no ill effects that I can see.

Normally aspirated, or turbo? Even with turbos, equipment diesels are designed with constant shutdowns/startups in mind, unlike road diesels.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

The only time I've let a car idle when I've been in line anywhere is if either it was really hot outside (I live in the desert), the AC was on and either I was wearing business clothes or my wife was with me, or my starter was on it's last legs (just replaced one today!)

[Bunger]

Originally Posted by soletek

What blows me away are the people across the street from me, sitting in line to get gas when I'm in the station with the lowest price. I know for a fact that the gas in both stations is delivered by the same truck on the same day out of the same tank. I have watched it deliver on multiple occasions. So much for Techron, whatever that means..

If they really were pumping out of the same tank, it just means that the gas pumped at the unbranded station was lucky enough to have techron in it. Branded gas (Shell, 76, Chevron, etc) can be sold at a non-branded station, as it meets the requirements for the detergent standards, but it would be unlawful for a Chevron station to pump "unbranded" fuel to its customers. (Although, you never know...)

Originally Posted by soletek

Something I learned that is a real eye opener -- after fuel has been created at the refinery it is pumped through huge, extremely long pipe lines to distribution stations; in some cases 100s of miles away. When they pump the different grades of gas and diesel through the same line they don't even separate it. They have worked out a calculated mix ratio they factor in. This is why it is so easy to get contaminated gasoline and/or diesel depending on how close to the end of each slug of fuel you happen to get. Only in certain cases are dividers pushed through the pipeline. They are not put in place to separate the fuels though. These devices are called 'pigs' because of the squealing sound they make as they scrape deposits from the inside of the pipe. Many of these pigs have another task to accomplish. They use ultra-sound to check for cracks in the pipeline and radio back their location when a crack is found.

This is exactly right, but it's really not as bad as it might seem. Pumping 91 octane fuel right after 87 isn't going to harshly effect much, and when they do pump non-combatable fuels, the stuff that gets mixed is sold as "transmix" and will never end up in your vehicle.

[GasSavers_Colin]

Originally Posted by theclencher

If the thing was really being worked hard, like plowing for hours on end, I'd let it idle for a bit before shutdown. Most of these idiots that idle their diesels all the time were not working them that hard. They are equipped with starters!

Not working them hard? It's not exactly easy to tow 80,000 lbs of cargo into a headwind at 70 MPH.

Suppose a guy's got four deliveries to make, plus a stop for lunch and to pay a visit to the schnurdling - he's now starting his engine six times per day rather than once. I'd rather pay a few bucks per day for the fuel burnt idling than to put unnecessary strain on the starter run the risk of coking the bearings.

Colin

[GasSavers_SD26]

Originally Posted by theclencher

I
Even so, starter brushes are dirt cheap, and if the engine isn't being worked hard there should be no threat of coking.

Might be cheap, but, when you use your truck for a living, being without a starter is a good way to loose a lot of money for yourself and your customers that rely on you.

[BumblingB]

Funny you should mention the people idling at the gas pump. Most of these people are the ones who will tear out of the gas station then get on the road and average a minimum of 10mph OVER the speed limit -no matter what the road is. The same people that if you ride with them and they get behind a car doing 2-5mph under the 60-70 mph speed limit you'll hear them say, "Can't this idiot do AT LEAST the speed limit" not even thinking the speed limit is just that, a posted maximum speed which people are allowed to travel.

[1993CivicVX]

Originally Posted by Wazabi Owner

Funny you should mention the people idling at the gas pump. Most of these people are the ones who will tear out of the gas station then get on the road and average a minimum of 10mph OVER the speed limit -no matter what the road is. The same people that if you ride with them and they get behind a car doing 2-5mph under the 60-70 mph speed limit you'll hear them say, "Can't this idiot do AT LEAST the speed limit" not even thinking the speed limit is just that, a posted maximum speed which people are allowed to travel.

Yeah, most people I know are like this. I used to be the same way, too, and still am if I am not trying to save gas.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

Yeah, most people I know are like this. I used to be the same way, too, and still am if I am not trying to save gas.

Funny, I tend to be that way MORE when I'm trying to save gas. Other people going slow in front of me mess up my ability to accelerate efficiently, pulse&glide, take turns without braking, etc.

I do think that many (but certainly not all) speed limits in this corner of the country are too low. There's a road on my way to work that's marked 30mph and heavily enforced, despite being four lanes wide (but with only two travel lanes, then two breakdown lanes, and a sidewalk on one side), with houses set very far off it, even utility poles set six feet off it, few cross roads, etc. As far as I can tell, it's a revenue generator, badly needed by the small town with lots of land and few taxpayers. There's lots of just as extreme roads that I drive.

[jadziasman]

As Master Kan once said: (And if you don't know who he is or why he told Kwai Chang Caine to do it, you're just too young)

Time for you to leave.

Rhode Island is pretty small, ain't it?