Do you let your TV warm up before towing?

P Kennedy wrote:
The single biggest reason a diesel won't warm up idling is the operator turns the heater on to highest temp and fastest fan speed sucking any combustion generated heat away from the engine block. Outside temp plays a major role in the amount of time it takes to generate block heat. "Wet" stacking is due to excessive idling time with a cold engine causing unburned fuel to be blown out the stack. New engines with egr and dpf units must be high idled at increased rpms to help combustion and plugging of the components as temperatures outside get colder. Pushing a cold turbocharged engine under load will cause damage due to the components which have not expanded to their correct operating dimensions. Cylinder scoring, bent push rods and camshaft damage can result. It's unfortunate that diesels are noisy when started cold but the actual cost of the fuel and inconvenience is of little comfort when a 18-50k engine goes south. Motorhomes with diesels have one of the highest failure rates due to cold stress and hot shutdowns. Units with automatic transmissions are easier to warm up driving moderately than manuals. I know the barrage of it never happened to me is right around the corner but the forums her are also full of "I can't afford".

I agree nearly 100% in this long earlier post.

I know the scored cam can occur particularily in overhead-cam engines (OHC) (usually gas) because of delayed oiling from slow, thick oil. Note Ford swapping to 5W20 from 5W30 on their early OHC engines.

I don't understand the bent pushrod reference in OHV engines though. Do any of you know what the root cause regarding cold engines/bent pushrods might be? Or is it possibly a rare to non-existent issue here? I do understand that bent pushrods can occur with an engine that has been stored unlubed for a long time... due to corroded stuck valves. Or bent connecting rods due to hydraulic lock from a coolant leak (cavitation or headgasket).

Wes
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