Alright folks,
Let's start again.
Fla904 wrote:
I recently took a trip from west palm beach all the way to Portland, before I left I changed the oil and oil filter. The trip (with much site seeing and detours) was about 5,200 miles. Is the wear and tear in the oil the same during this all highway drive as it would be normally and should I change the oil now or drive a little in the city for a couple hundred miles? Also I heard letting the engine idle before and after for maybe 10-20 seconds is a good habit to get into? Any truth behind that?
His profile says only "98 E350". We don't know if it is a 5.4, 6.8 or 7.3. We don't have any clue how much weight he is pulling. He said Portland and 5200 miles. I am going to assume that he means Portland OR and not Portland ME.
So, I stand by all of what I wrote:
Matt_Colie wrote:
Let me answer as an engine professional with no clue at all what you vehicle/engine is:
* There is nothing good that happens when an engine is idling.
* The statement about cooling a turbocharger might be correct if it does not have a water cooled bearing section.
* Changing out lube oil is required by the service the engine has seen. If you don't want to get a lube oil analysis (~25$us), change it at the recommended intervals.
***Some of this might have minor revisions if the vehicle is described in great detail, but I doubt it.
Matt - An Engine Test Lab Refugee
First Diesel Specific (But we don't know way Fla904 has)
Those that idle any diesel for an hour are wasting a lot. As a direct result of laboratory work done by your truly for a number OEs. It is actually hard to warm a diesel up by idling it without load. There can be enough cold air in the combustion cycle to completely meet the cooling demands of an unloaded diesel.
The best way to warm up any engine CI or SI, is to do so with moderate load the until main engine lube oil is over 100°F. In the lab, I always programmed 15-15 to 100 for passcar engines. That is 15"MAP and 1500 RPM at what ever power and time that takes to get to 100° Sump. (For diesels, I would give a % rack and idle * ~2.5 for RPM.)
Even after a test run at 100% power, it never took more than 5 minutes for the test engine to get to temperatures for a safe shut-down. Did we know? How about a diesel with 32 thermocouples recorded by a data aquisition system that won't allow the test engine to be jeopardized. (Test engines are BIG BUCKS.)
I did not include cases for extreme conditions (single digit and negative °F are not normal for most RVs). Anybody that tries to run an engine at those temperatures should be considering an engine heating system.
Again, if you idle the engine for longer than it takes to operate it safely, you are wasting engine life and fuel.
Matt
