Idling a diesel

Agree with notso.

Light throttle will warm the engine quicker than idling, watching the EGT. Idle is about 160 deg, light throttle is in the 200s.

Start the engine, put on seat belt, glasses etc.
By the time I get to the bottom of the street the temp gauge is starting to move.

I was taught at TAFE in the early 1960s to never warm an engine up by leaving it idling. You should drive off immediately but don't let it labour or work hard until you have driven at least about 20 to 30 ks.

About 75% of wear in an engine occurs when it is cold so the quicker you warm it up the better. This is why taxi engines last so long, they are always running at normal temperature. It is also why engines used for commuting to work over short distances or doing short trips around town for most of their life wear out much quicker. They rarely reach the correct temperature.

You must keep in mind that an engine has not reached normal temperature just because the temperature gauge says so. It is only measuring water temperature, usually in the cylinder head, and this area warms up rapidly. It takes a lot longer for parts lower down in the engine like the crank shaft, bearings, con rods, timing chains etc to reach normal temperature.

Brian

In my School they say Do not idle a diesel without any load on the engine ie without the a/c on high. Too much running at idle will glaze the cylinders walls and reduce the engine performance

This reminds me of the Indian Doctor who lived next door to me in the UK years ago........... frost, ice or snow he would get in his Peugot 604 start it and then rev it's guts out for about 5 minutes before driving off! The noise was horrible.
It was a new vehicle but after 12 months blew blue smoke and had dents all round as testament to his lousy driving as well.

Now I've got a neighbour who insists on leaving his V8 ute ticking over at anytime between 0530 and 0700hrs while he loads up with guttering materials for his days work, so we get a deep exhaust rumble which I would like at any other time, and a clattering of metal as he chucks it on the roof of his trailer.
There's a lot of ignorant people out there.
Alan.

Alan, I would wait till your neighbour has his next "blinder" of a bbq, friends over and all that stuff, then get up at 7am and decide to mow your lawn that morning!! Might change his tune then, sometimes its a whole lot different when the shoe is on the other foot. Then again, if your neighbour is a hells angel, dont bother with my idea.:)

Or perhaps a quiet word over a beer with him might solve the problem, he may not have even thought about it. Most people if approached politely are reasonable, otherwise perhaps discuss a change in fence?