Nine Dying Diesel Fads
I am really glad that 1, 4, and 9 are going away. Especially nine because it gives diesels a bad rap and makes people that don't know any better believe that all diesels(even deleted ones) emit black...
Forum Discussion
thomasmnile wrote:
Warming up and prolonged idling are, or becoming yesterday's news in commercial trucking, even railroading. In my years in the fire service, never warmed up truck, never cooled one down, yet the landscape wasn't littered with blown turbochargers and pistons in my wake. Hit the ignition, as soon as oil pressure registered off we went. Just sayin'..... Would light truck engines be any different? In harsh winter climates sure it's beneficial to plug in the block heater but otherwise....
Engine wear from cold starts does not necessarily mean blown turbos or pistons. In most cases it will cause excess oil consumption over time due to liner wear along with excess wear on cams, bearings, rockers, and other internal parts. Basically you will dramatically cut down how long the engine can go before an overhaul. This is not a big deal for engines that will not have a lot of miles/hours on them like your fire truck, but it is a big deal if you are expecting to get 300k miles in a pick up or even a million miles out of a class 8 line hauler.
This is because most engine wear comes from the first 10-15 minutes of a cold start before oil has a chance to get to operating temp and is too thick to properly go through and coat the whole engine protecting them from wear. If you are unloaded and not putting a high load on your engine then yes, you can just start it up and take off avoiding high revs until the oil is hot enough. However, it is hard to avoid high revs when pulling a heavy load therefore it is best to allow the engine oil to warm up before hand.
