Will a 10 mile commute kill a diesel?

IB: The solution to your problem is simple; you and your truck need to come in out of the cold! :B When it gets 'cold' in the brutal Central Fl. winter, the grid heater on my '05 cycles for maybe almost a minute before shutting off! :E

Meanwhile, we're up to 11 pages here and still haven't killed off those diesel 'reindeer'! :B

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Maybe its just me but I will never go back to a gas motored HD pickup- never! I would buy a car for daily driving and rent a diesel pickup for trips before buying an HD truck with a gas motor. I get everyone has different needs... and this is just my personal preference.

But- After 15 years of HD diesel pickups- the smile is still there. :)

transamz9 wrote:

Do you have an aftermarket idle up feature? Makes a WORLD of difference on my 5.9. My factory idle up is at 900 rpm. My Bully Dog idle up is at 1150.

Yes, I have a Predator programmer that allows me to enable the cruise control idle up feature. In these very cold temps we are experiencing right now, I set it for 1150 RPM + or -, and that allowed the engine temp to stay at 145*f when the truck was stationary. Usually it drops right off the low end of the temp gauge.

ib516 wrote:
As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the Cummins diesel. The two I've owned (2002 and current 2007 5.9L) have been very reliable, easy on fuel (not like a Prius, but good for a HD truck), and powerful pullers.

That said, I will be taking a serious look at a 6.4L Hemi powered 3500 SRW when I am shopping for my next truck. I have a 12 mile commute (one way), and I have the whole grill blocked off with a winter front. My truck is garaged (not insulated or heated garage, but it is slightly warmer than outside, and it is out of the wind). I run the block heater on a timer that comes on 4 hrs before I leave for work.

This morning, the outside temp was -13*f, and the engine temp on my truck finally got to about 1/3 on the gauge (160*f coolant temp on the ScangaugeII) when I pulled into the parking lot at work - just started to blow warm air out of the heater. That gets old....fast.

The 5.7L Hemi is ok for light work in the 2500s with 4.10 gears - as good as any other smallish gasser, but the 6.4L Hemi has that little bit more for me to seriously consider it. I know a 6.4L Hemi in a HD truck won't be great on gas, but they do say the 6.4L Hemi will get better mpg than the same truck with a 5.7L Hemi due to the MDS system on the 6.4.

Do you have an aftermarket idle up feature? Makes a WORLD of difference on my 5.9. My factory idle up is at 900 rpm. My Bully Dog idle up is at 1150.

******

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the Cummins diesel. The two I've owned (2002 and current 2007 5.9L) have been very reliable, easy on fuel (not like a Prius, but good for a HD truck), and powerful pullers.

That said, I will be taking a serious look at a 6.4L Hemi powered 3500 SRW when I am shopping for my next truck. I have a 12 mile commute (one way), and I have the whole grill blocked off with a winter front. My truck is garaged (not insulated or heated garage, but it is slightly warmer than outside, and it is out of the wind). I run the block heater on a timer that comes on 4 hrs before I leave for work.

This morning, the outside temp was -13*f, and the engine temp on my truck finally got to about 1/3 on the gauge (160*f coolant temp on the ScangaugeII) when I pulled into the parking lot at work - just started to blow warm air out of the heater. That gets old....fast.

The 5.7L Hemi is ok for light work in the 2500s with 4.10 gears - as good as any other smallish gasser, but the 6.4L Hemi has that little bit more for me to seriously consider it. I know a 6.4L Hemi in a HD truck won't be great on gas, but they do say the 6.4L Hemi will get better mpg than the same truck with a 5.7L Hemi due to the MDS system on the 6.4.

oilslick wrote:

I would like to point out a couple of things. Ford and Chev don't make a manual transmission in a 3/4 or one ton truck so that leaves only the RAM Cummins diesel. In the paper version of the owners manual it states that if you do not use full synthetic 5W40 oil below -18C engine damage will occur.

While the Cummins engine is in "regen" there is no direct indication other than the fuel burn drastically reduced, if you have an EGT gauge you will see the increased exhaust temps displayed there. During regen exhaust gas is recirculated back into the intake just before the grid heater, if the engine is not at operating temp during regen that recirculated exhaust gas also contains unburnt diesel fuel which eventually runs down the cylinder walls and dilutes the oil causing the engine to "make oil" this unburnt fuel also runs back down the boost tube and collects at the exit to the precooler. Anyone start to see any problem yet?

If it's cold out the grid heaters will be on causing the unburnt fuel to become balls of hard carbon, these balls continue to grow in size until they can't get through the grid heater and then reduce the amount of airflow allowed into the engine. If a hard enough piece manages to get through the grid and out into the exhaust in one piece it can damage the turbo. Our 2011 3500 manual trans truck which was only driven on the hiway while towing at least 8000lb cargo trailer and often much heavier goose trailers even with a fast idle, winter front, synthetic oil, had problems from new. Oil change messages at 1500km and the oil so overfull and diluted with diesel fuel you wouldn't believe unless you saw it. The truck was forever at the dealer with exhaust codes, they changed a few O2 sensors but this is no way to treat a $15,000 engine if you have to replace it.

The truck would barely run in the end and the huge truck dealer here was no help. With about 30,000km on the truck I decided to tear it apart and document with pictures what I found. After my work the truck ran great and oil changes were in the range they should be with no oil dilution. The price was loss of warranty at 30,000km. I showed the pictures to the service manager, he was not surprised at all so he must have already seen this many times before yet would do nothing to correct it. I honestly don't think it was the dealer or the service manager, I think this came from Chrysler. They know the problem exists but the fix was the addition of DEF on the 2013 truck. I love the Ram trucks especially the 2013 with the Aisin trans but people need to know exactly what they are getting into before buying a Cummins powered truck and Chrysler won't tell you neither will the sales person.

Well, since going to the new SCR setup, the new Cummins reduces EGR from the old 30 to 40% values down to roughly 10 to 15% values. A few people seem to have opened up their 2013+ RAMs and found that there's not noticeable amount of soot going back into the intake (at least at around 20 to 30k miles). The whole massive EGR approach is a mistake in my book and that's why even International who Poo Poo'd all the SCR guys had to come crawling to their arch rival (Cummins) to get an SCR system to meet current emissions standards and hopefully get out of their warranty rut that they are in. We use Cummins in our transit vehicles and have seen issues with the 2007-2009 ISL's. Lots of EGR, lots of soot, lots of issues. But with our newer fleet which has about 40,000 miles, we're not seeing anywhere near the issues that we did with our 2007 lot. SCR is a very good thing. I'd rather pay the price to change out the SCR dosing/injector (which is dirt cheap) than deal with the soot, clogged EGR valves, and other associated issues that all the manufacturers had from 2007 to 2009/2010. I advise all my friends to avoid those years for any manufacturer because of the new emissions "Growing pains".

DPF and DEF are two entirely different functions treating entirely different exhaust issues carbon particulate in the exhaust stream (DPF) and oxides of nitrogen(DEF). Not certain I understand that long post above.

Also don't understand how so much raw fuel winds up all over the engine intake system............:h

If these diesels in a light duty truck are so seemingly fragile, why are there diesel powered cars operating all over the globe? :h

Starting to think this "a diesel is meant to work" is being overworked.

My 2010 CC had a little red light that came on to indicate a regen was going on. It was just to the right of the speedo in the cluster.

Oilslick wrote:
While the Cummins engine is in "regen" there is no direct indication other than the fuel burn drastically reduced, if you have an EGT gauge you will see the increased exhaust temps displayed there. During regen exhaust gas is recirculated back into the intake just before the grid heater, if the engine is not at operating temp during regen that recirculated exhaust gas also contains unburnt diesel fuel which eventually runs down the cylinder walls and dilutes the oil causing the engine to "make oil" this unburnt fuel also runs back down the boost tube and collects at the exit to the precooler. Anyone start to see any problem yet?

True there is no direct indication but I would think you should see a big drop in the mileage indication while the regen is taking place. My truck has never made oil either and I sometimes have to add a liter between changes.

It's been a long time since I lived in Edmonton but I remember how cold it used to get and I'll certainly take your word on the rest.