is idling for long periods of time bad?

[Carchania]

gday all

just got my safari (89 gq 4.2d with mtq turbo put on at 88000k) back from arb today and have been told theres a bad knock in my engine and that worse case senario is i may have to replace the engine. its only done 113000. reason given was that being an import they leave their cars idling for extended periods of time and this tends to wear the engine out as if it had done 300000 instead of the actual 100000 kms or so that is on the odometer.

was just wondering if anyone knows about whether there is fact in this or whether its just another line?

cheers
Leayton

[jav]

i've seen some real bad valve train wear on stationary motors that spent a lot of time idling, lack of oil because of the low rev's.

[its aford not a nissan]

i always thought that for pete motors not diesels most trucks leave em idling for extended periods rather than turn them off
i cant see idling for long periods doing any damage unless there is already something wrong

[GU_247]

i would say more likely a fair few short trips
The oil pump should be pumping sufficiently to lubricate all the engine
I know taxis are petrol but the principal is the same.....they seem to be able to get a million k's no problem due to the fact they are at running temp most of their life

[cloughy]

Yea, its bad, they tend to glaze the bores

But extended periods of time, can mean many things, but i'm talking hours at a time, not 5 min's while you run into the shops

[MyGQ]

I know taxis are petrol but the principal is the same.....they seem to be able to get a million k's no problem due to the fact they are at running temp most of their life

Taxi's run on LPG which doesn't damage the bore as much as petrol does due to the cleaner burning fuel, oil stays fresher longer in LPG than petrol or diesel.

Diesel's being left to idle shouldn't be a problem as they are designed for that kind of work, minimum revs to get the power out of them, trucks sometimes leave their engines on overnight when they sleep, so i guess it can't be that bad

I would say there was a problem with service history of the engine, as the japs don't do too well when it comes to servicing of a diesel.

[pongo]

Yep its bad, A diesel will glaze the bores up if left idling for long periods of time, and they can also suffer if they dont do much loaded running and a lot of free revving.

If your unsure, just find a car trailer and a heavy car and go for a hour or 2 run to clean her out. Mine suffers badly, but once we put some load on her, she comes good pretty quick.


Cheers

[mattstar]

what pongo was saying is on track, I am not 100% sure as the reason why, but I have been told that to idle an engine for excessive amounts of time isn't the best for them as there is no load what so ever on moving parts, whether driving under load would help or not I don't know...

[rickstrap]

being a heavy machine operator you should only idle no more then six minutes all our 750 horse cat dumpys will not idle longer then 5 you will glaze the bores idling for long periods all our company trucks have5 minute timers

[slowLux]

if i leave my gq idling i usually turn the hand throttle up up so it revs at about 1100 rpm

We do the same with our 7.0L mitsis at work

[Carchania]

cheers guys

i asked the diesel engineer at work today and he reckons that the worst case is it could cause the glazing as some of you have mentioned. he then stated that the cheapest thing to do then is to bore the engine a couple of thou and put bigger rings and pistons in. have any of you done this to the td42? i have sourced 03 and later model engines with intercooler and turbo that have done about 80000k's on them for 8 grand. would it just be better to change to one of these?

Leayton

[jav]

I think Fester had one with less then 10000km on it for around $7000.

[tweak'e]

gday all

reason given was that being an import they leave their cars idling for extended periods of time and this tends to wear the engine out as if it had done 300000 instead of the actual 100000 kms or so that is on the odometer.

was just wondering if anyone knows about whether there is fact in this or whether its just another line?

cheers
Leayton

quite comman. a lot of jap imports do huge engine hours compared to km's driven, hence a lot of engine wear. tho i dos depend on exactly where in jap the vechile came from.

add in that most have wound back speedo's......... :(

[BIG GQ]

That's right mate as cloughy said it can glaze the bores mate but it would need to be at idle for a LONG time

[Vulcanised]

i was told that a good thrashing will sometimes clear a glazed bore..... and i'm also told that there is an additive you can add to the fuel to help de-glaze it. Fire trucks are notorious for glazing..... our truck only has 20,000 k's on it, it belches blue smoke when it's cold, or when it has been idling for a period of time, even at extended idle. We are told to set our at 1,200 rpm, but even then they glaze. We took it to a fire at Premer a few weeks back, thats a 2 hour drive from here...... spent most of the trip on the red line (thats about 95kph ) and it did improve it a bit.

[cloughy]

We got two tojo work utes, there site only and in winter get left running on night shift for hours at a time (keeps the heater warm ), man you should see these things smoke, glazed good, i just want to see one run on both 2H's by the way, HJ60 and HJ45

[rickstrap]

at the and of the day there is no quick fix for glazed bores a bloke in our club was told put a heavy trailer find the biggest hill and flog the crap out of it $9000 rebuild later wont do that again and i for got camfer balls crushed up in the fuel tank ive been told will help with glazing interstaters use it in there rigs they get 100000 ks out of them

[V8Patrol]

89 gq 4.2d with mtq turbo put on at 88000k

Was there a turbo timer fitted aswell???

wont do the turbo any good at all if not, it also effects the oils viscosity level resulting in a much lower viscosity & thus less protection for the engine, mind you this would require heaps of shutdowns ( short runs ) to effect it that much.

back from arb today and have been told theres a bad knock in my engine and that worse case senario is i may have to replace the engine. its only done 113000.

Get a 2nd opinion
If there's a "bad knock" then youd be able to hear it as clear as day !

reason given was that being an import they leave their cars idling for extended periods of time and this tends to wear the engine out as if it had done 300000 instead of the actual 100000 kms or so that is on the odometer.

Has the engine idled over since the day it departed the factory ?
Short runs( IE: to the milkbar n back), poor oil quality, poor aircleaner maintance will result in a quicker wearing diesel engine but its generally glazed bores that are the result and not a "knocking engine"

was just wondering if anyone knows about whether there is fact in this or whether its just another line?

cheers
Leayton

sounds like ........
coughbullshitcough to me

Kingy

[Carchania]

v8patrol,

Was there a turbo timer fitted aswell???

nah mate i didnt fit a turbo timer i was saving for a pyrometer instead, but my old mechanic who use to work on the car said if i have been doing hard of highway driving and havent driven at 60 or less for around 5 minutes, to let the car idle in the drive way for a couple. normally i let it warm up 5 mins in the morning when i drive it, and then cause i live on a main road i let it idle for 5 mins when i get home and unload everything that i need to

Get a 2nd opinion

im getting it looked at by a diesel engineer i know in two weeks. he said everytime i come pick up my son he has never heard the thing idling badly or a 'bad knock' coming from the car.

Has the engine idled over since the day it departed the factory ?

no, beside the cold start first thing in the day, the car idles fine once it warms up, but then again this is my first diesel so what might sound normal to me could actually be its death throes, hence why the engineer dude is looking at it in a couple of weeks. also it doesnt run on if thats what ur asking.

i appreciate all the theories and replies you guys have given me, cheers

Leayton

[zookjedi]

"Diesel's being left to idle shouldn't be a problem as they are designed for that kind of work, minimum revs to get the power out of them, trucks sometimes leave their engines on overnight when they sleep, so i guess it can't be that bad"


diesels are not designed to be idled around they are usally revved pretty hard ALLDAY long both on interstate trucks and mining gear , idling a diesel for extended periods glazes the bores , and the truckies that leave their engines running whilst they sleep obviously dont own there trucks and would more than likely get the a$$ if the owner new about it , at the same time diesels should not be shut down with out first idling (if turbo is fitted) to allow the turbo to cool sufficently otherwise turbo failures are a big possibility over time due to carbon build up on the shaft , turbo timer is the go but better still installing a pyrometer as well is even better

cheers Jai

[badger]

idleing diesels is the biggest wives tail ever

a diesel will live a longer life if reved hard all day every day then it will if ran at idle

just because they make good power down low doesnt mean they like to sit at 1000rpm all day every day.

id get someone else who is a diesel specialist to look at it before you cough up anymore coin.

[CRUSHU]

Not relevant to this situation, but interesting maybe for some, if it were a petrol motor, idling or very low speeds, will foul the spark plugs.

[iwanahuma]

If you are up for a new engine anyway, just turbo the old one now... run the hell out of it till it detonates then rebuild... simple...

[bru21]

its not so much the idleing but the short distances and low speeds meaning the klms on the speedo are out compared to the hours.

its like 2k in fifth vs 2k in second distance at the speedo vastly different for an hour at the motor

[MQSWBUTE]

i let my sd33 idle for 4.5hours i forgot to turn it off while helping with a recovery of a stock 80series of cockpit tk

[lolergram]

i let my sd33 idle for 4.5hours i forgot to turn it off while helping with a recovery of a stock 80series of cockpit tk

Thats only 1/2 the story!!!
What happened after? Engine running fine? anything noticed?



....Always helping the toyotas.... lol

[Josh n Kat]

hehehe i laugh at you! how do you not notice your car idling for 4.5 hours?!

[MQSWBUTE]

i was leading the trip (doing cockpit track) pulled over went down to help recover a stock 80 and forgot i leaf it running i didnt think it was going to take long



as for the motor no issues at all it was well over 2 months ago now and its been my daily driver for abit only probs motor wise i have had is alternator (dues to sinking it)

not bad for a sd33

[bru21]

saying idling the motor is ok after doing it once, is about as good science as smoking one ciggie and saying you didn't get cancer from one so smoking must be ok.

[GQ TROL]

This doesn't answer your question about idling, but a more likely reason for premature engine wear is because the speedo has been wound back.

Its an import, unfortunately it sometimes happens.