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Idling during lunch break?

MegaCabn

MegaCabn

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Hey everyone, first time diesel truck owner here with a question. I purchased a '24 6.7 Megacab 2500 and I'm loving it. I got pretty deep into research before I decided to go with a diesel over a gasser and I keep seeing people say how bad it is to idle your truck for extended periods of time. I've searched and searched and couldn't find an answer on this. My question is how long is "a long time" to idle the truck? Is maybe an hour or so of idling per day too long?

I usually get to work early and chill in the truck for about 20 minutes before heading into the office. Then out of an hour long lunch, I'll sit in the truck for 30 - 45 minutes daily and relax. During these times, I would normally turn on and idle my old truck (Hemi Ram) and use the AC or heater and listen to music or podcast, etc. Is that amount of idle time bad for the engine? From everything I've found online, idling a diesel engine sounds like the worst possible thing to do. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I just don't know and want to learn as much as I can, thanks!
 
I would recommend against idling as you have outlined above. Cummins recommends in the manual to have 16% or less idle time - so about 10 mins per hours. Unless your commute is really long id avoid this.
 
You are purposely idling for an hour minimum every workday? Bad for your motors emissions system, waste of fuel and unnecessary wear and tear.

At least take it for a ride on your lunch hour.
 
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
 
MegaRed said:
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
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It's more than "a few grands" for a '24, they can't be flashed, need a new (old) replacement ECU and those are at least a few grands by themselves, or so I heard.
 
MegaRed said:
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that all makes sense. Spending the money to delete does suck, but what sucks more is working registration and smogging in California. Maybe if I didnt have a fresh warranty, I would consider it more!
 
Anything over 10 minutes per hour of operation is considered excessive by Cummins. For every hour of idling you would want at least 6 drive hours.

MegaRed said:
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
Click to expand...

Yes and no, the issue with idling isn’t only about the emissions system. Prolonged idling can cause wet stacking on all diesel engines. The Cummins recommendation of 10 minutes per hour of operation is immaterial of any emissions after treatment.

A big reason diesels idled all day long was they weren’t originally as easy to start so idling became common practice to not deal with starting them.
 
MegaRed said:
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
Click to expand...
MegaRed said:
Back in the day, diesels could idle all day long. Lots of big rigs never shut their engines off. After idling for a prolonged time, a few stomps on the skinny pedal would blow a bunch of crap out the exhaust and you were on your way. With today's BS emissions systems, it's been the death of the reliable diesel engine. If you delete the truck, you might be safer, but after spending what we do on a '24 HD, spending another few grand on deleting doesn't sound great.
Click to expand...
That may have been true about big rigs, but my owner’s manual for my 97 12 valve says do not idle for prolonged times. As others have mentioned cylinder walls get too cool during idle and fuel is not burned efficiently.
 
AH64ID said:
A big reason diesels idled all day long was they weren’t originally as easy to start so idling became common practice to not deal with starting them.
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Big rigs still idle all day long up North during winter times, I work oilfield in Alberta and I see it all the time. Yes the starting is still an issue when it's -30C to -50C, good luck to anyone starting their truck if they think otherwise.
 
Funny, my normal driving for the last 3 years resulted in: 473 Idle hours and 1875 drive hours.
The only way those times are possible is if it counts all those hours at stop lights and low speed traffic.

When I do let it sit idle, it's mostly utilizing the high idle speed.
 
BubbaWilkins said:
Funny, my normal driving for the last 3 years resulted in: 473 Idle hours and 1875 drive hours.
The only way those times are possible is if it counts all those hours at stop lights and low speed traffic.

When I do let it sit idle, it's mostly utilizing the high idle speed.
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Any time you're stationary the hours are idle hours, even as fast idle.

There is a speed that will also count idle hours, but I am not sure what it is. I suspect it's the same speed for keyboard entry on the UConnect.
 
Jacob said:
I say do it. No point suffering at lunch. Enjoy the ac and radio.
Pro tip: sit in passenger seat on lunch to even out seat wear.
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I’m kind of with you on this, let’s see how this plays out :oops: Also yes, I definitely switch between all the seats during the my lunch breaks!!
 
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