Just a thought, on leaving the rig plugged in all night vs. letting it idle to warm up, are you actually saving money? or just saving fuel and spending the money elsewhere. Our shop is on its own bill with the wells on the ranch. And when we start plugging tractors in at night you really notice the difference.

 

Haven't had the IDI on the road yet but I'll tell you what MPG's are killing me in the Dodge this winter for some reason. Heck I just filled up Wednesday, put 240 miles on the trip odometer and put a little over 21 gallons in the tank. Came out to like 11.4 MPG. This is in town driving. I was getting between 16-17 MPG normally town driving. I have cut back on the 2 stroke oil and have been running power service to try to help get the cetane numbers up a bit in the fuel. Now I don't normally let my truck warm clear up to operating temp before I take off but it can take up to 15 minutes depending on how cold it is outside to get up to around 130*. My truck has high idle and 3 cylinder high idle thanks to using to have a Smarty programmer on it but for some reason neither works properly. Guess I'm gonna have to pull the IAT sensor and clean it and see if that helps. Not sure if the C6's and E40D's pump fluid while in park. Mine does not so anytime I'm doing a cold start I put the trans in neutral and set the parking brake. My trans temp rarely gets above 100* even in the summer unless I'm sitting in stop and go traffic.

 

As far as im aware the trans not moving fluid in park was and is a dodge thing. Fords and chevs circulate the fluid in park to allow the trans to warm up via the radiator before driving.

 

It's definitely a Dodge thing. If I don't throw it in neutral and let it circulate she won't want to shift out of 2nd gear for the 1st 5 miles or so lol.

 

an NV4500 will solve that issue...and give you a little more milage...and fix that shift problem..and be more fun to drive..and be more reliable.. i could go on..lol

 

Actually I had a NV4500 back in August. Bought it had it rebuilt and had a 1 3/8" South Bend input shaft installed in it along with a fully splined main shaft and pressed on 5th gear. I mean this thing was ready to go. Unfortunately I had a little over 3k in just that and I was still looking at $1200 for a clutch, $300 for hydros, still needed a bellhousing and had to take care of the tcase issue. So with that said I traded the thing on a sweet twin turbo setup which is waiting for some day down the road to go on. I can get an auto built to handle around 700hp for around 3k so that is what I'm gonna do here come spring time.

 

You should check the Watt rating of your block heaters. Around here we're paying $0.12/KWH. That's 1000W for 1 hour for $0.12. Our heaters are ~1000W so we should be able to plug in for 8 hours for a buck or about a ~¼Gal of fuel.

 

Umm, wouldn't that toast the trans not having circulation in park? Heat still does build even without a load on it.... just slower.

 

I honestly don't know on that one. I just know that the 47re's do not circulate fluid while in park. I'm assuming the 47rh's and possibly the 48re's are the same way as well. When you build them though you can set them up so that they circulate fluid while they are in park.

 

if I wanted to try using a redneck cardboard piece over the radiator, how the heck do you get it in there? I looked this morning, it appears that there is no access from the top, and there is a secondary rad. by the looks of it, but with the fan shroud and the grill I can't see much from the front or the back, just thru the grill...
This will be my 2nd winter driving the beast, and I've noticed that my temp gauge never gets warm, I wasn't sure if that was a diesel thing or what. but it takes my truck well over 20 miles to actually get any heat out of it, vent or radiator.
I'll be hopefully starting a job in the next few weeks, and I could use any cheap tips I can find till the paychecks start coming in again...

lee

 

It sounds like you do not have a thermostat, or have a stuck open thermostat. It does not take 20 miles to start getting warm air out the heater if your thermostat is working right.

 

its possible that my truck could have NO thermostat? I don't know diddly about diesels, but that's not possible in a gas car, as far as I know.
One time, last summer, the temperature gauge did creep up to the mid-range while I was at a light, just got off the highway. I watched it, then it went back down. That was the only time it has gone more than 5 degrees (arc degrees) up from dead COLD on the gauge.

If there is no therm in this truck, that can't be a good thing, can it? I've driven it since April 2010, put about 18,000 miles on it, always driven it like it was a car. (no towing, no off road, no long trips)

Any residual damage I should be on the lookout for?


lee

 

no t-stat or a faulty one (you have one or the other) and perhaps a non working fan clutch too by the sounds of it lol.if your not working the truck,don't worry about fixing the fan clutch.a lot of people run these without working fan clutches and don't know it.until they go and work them,and they figure out (like me lol) that when working you can't possibly miss this loud ROAR of the power killer when locked.
anywho, no t-stat or always open one,will not warm or cool the engine properly.
it wont warm up on time as you know,which not only sucks for a lack of heat for you in the cab during winter,but it'll hurt fuel economy and power too - not a complete burn of the fuel.
it can't cool properly,because the flow is too fast though the rad.if flow is too high or much volume goes through the rad,then the coolant doesn't have enough time spent in there,and rather than cool,it flows though so quickly it's still warm by the time it reaches the other side and enters back into the engine see?
no way around it,a properly working (stock motorcraft only!) t-stat needs to be there to regulate flow.
also another negative with running under normal operating temp (195 ish - 237ish) is you risk too much condensation in your oil that doesn't get evaporated away.not cool at all.
a heavy duty diesel work truck kinda makes for an expensive car you know? lol.

 

thanks for the info. yeah, I know I don't belong driving it, it seemed like a good idea when I bought it, but I dont need it, and it's too big for me. plus it's expensive to put parts and fuel into it. Wanna buy it? :-)

lee

 

hahaha,nah.the one i have now is already killing me.just when i think im getting close to finishing it,i always see something else that's degraded from just age,or upgrade better than ford made it due to cost (which usually makes me ask myself,why the heck did i let that go so long? once fixed lol.) i wouldn't want to try running two of 'em.