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The display is associated with the engine and it is used for a variety of purposes. It can remind you of service intervals, track mileage, warn of excessive idling or hard stops, and I believe provide engine codes.

My memory sucks so verify what I just said.

[Archived]

This is a link for a newer version, but will give you an idea how it works.

Do a google search for “detroit diesel pro driver manual”,

LINK

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How come the Detroit can’t Idle very long? What happens in trafic?

[Dan]

No diesel engine that I know of is suppose to idle more than 10 mins. ldling washes the cylinder walls with fuel. It also dilutes the oil with fuel.

OTR folks are starting to install generators on the trucks to spare the big engine of the abuse.

I found a DD 60s operators manual covering 2004 and earlier DD 60s engines and copied & pasted the following from p.19 of the manual or p.31 of the pdf file:

Whenever possible, avoid unnecessary idling.

During long engine idling periods with the transmission in neutral, the engine coolant temperature may fall below the normal operating range. The incomplete combustion of fuel in a cold engine will cause crankcase oil dilution, formation of lacquer or gummy deposits on the valves, pistons,and rings, and rapid accumulation of sludge in the engine. When prolonged idling is necessary, maintain at least 850 rpm spring/summer and 1200 rpm fall/winter.

Here’s a link to the manual

http://www.ddcsn.com/cps/rde/xbcr/ddcsn/DDC-SVC-MAN-0039.pdf

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ART: Personally (and I make no warranty) I would not worry about idle time. Mine has idled for long periods of time for OTR air use(when cruise-airs couldn’t cool coach) or as a generator when my genset was down. I’ve seen no ill effects and I check oil samples when I change oil for fuel/coolant dilution etc. I will say it is usually fairly warm out but even when cooler, I believe the thermostats would do a fairly good job of holding engine temps unless you’re using OTR coach heat.

[Art]

I believe the issue of engine temps falling below the ideal temps is the concern of DD.

A diesel engine such as we have should be on high idle for longer idling periods, such as to run OTR or keep the coach warm.

This should be of concern to folks who store their coaches for long periods and think they are doing the coach a favor starting it every few weeks. If starting it periodically is something an owner wants to do, the best thing is to get it out and run it long and hard until everything has come up to temperature. It takes my coach at least 25 miles and often more to get everything up to temperature.

There is nothing we can do in stop and go traffic, but we should not spend a large percentage of time in those conditions.

[William]

Thanks’ for all the replys, I’m new to Detroit or at least series 60, we had a 1980 Prevost with a 8v 71 engine a totally different animal and a M11 400 hp in our last coach 96 U320 foretravel, so again thanks’ for the replys. Art

[Jim]

My bus came with the MCI driver manual for the E4500 seated coach. It says that whenever heating or cooling is needed for the comfort of passengers while parked, the driver should run the bus on high idle and adjust the air conditioning as needed. I’m sure that is not good for the engine as the DD manual states, but passenger buses typically run 500,000 miles or more before an engine overhaul, and I expect they all have had many, many hours of idling by that point. Maybe they would get to 700,000 miles before overhaul if they had not been idling so much, but the point is, a half hour of idling the Series 60 every now and then is not going to have noticable impact on your engine.

[Archived]

The reason trucks are installing generators is the Federal 5 minute idle rule to reduce air polution. It has nothing to d owith idling hurting engines. It is all due to emission rules.

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It is all due to money. You can bet the makers of truck generators that burn diesel fuel were dancing in the streets when their market opened up and that they lobbied the hell out of the regulators to get the 5 minute rule passed.

[Doug]

I know it is not good for any Diesel engine to idle for long periods of time at regular idle. But The High Idle switch takes care of that doesn’t it ? As far as the 5 Min law on idle time. The people that enforce that are probably about as common as the Microsoft Software Police ?

Safe Travels,

Rocky

[Walter]

Rocky,

Depending on the State, the NE is the worst, those enforcement folks are pretty plentiful. Including the truck stops who are required to enforce the law on thier property. In the middle of Nebraska probably not an issue.

[Kevin]

Mikee,

I can see where there might be enforcing it at the large Truck Stops. Good thing that We have Generators and Batteries to run off of.

Safe Travels,

Rocky

[Archived]

So …. what’s better for the engine (or less worse)? To leave the engine idling for a longer period of time or starting and stopping the engine two or three or four times while positioning it to hook up the toad or checking in at a camp ground or fueling up and then having to pull forward while the co-pilot does whatever a co-pilot does in the truck stop which I typically don’t do anymore since I have the Love’s fuel card with special discount that I obtained through the generosity of the Prevost Community website.

I’ve had a tendency that if the engine is cold (I guess down south they never get cold they only get cool) I’ll let it idle to help warm it up (I don’t like pulling a load on any engine until the engine has reasonably warmed up … car, Suburban, race car, airplane, coach, snowblower, coach generator, etc.) while I do something else.

Now I’m wondering if the engine is warm or up to normal, full operating temperature … should I shut the engine off instead of idling. I’m thinking I should probably shut the engine off, regardless of how long the shutdown period is.

This being the very first diesel I’ve ever owned … I keep forgetting that at idle (especially slow idle) the diesel fuel in the cylinders at idle has a tendency to wash the oil off the cylinder walls. Its good to be reminded of what often; keep those cards and letters coming!

But I would have thought being that the DD fuel injection is computer controlled (at least I think it is) that the computer would put only a tiny amount of fuel in the cylinder and reduce or eliminate cylinder wall washdown. Sometimes things that I thought were one way are in fact another way.

(So when someone asks why a diesel powered truck or coach is idling so long … I can now tell them “he or she is washing down the cylinder walls in the engine … some drivers do that quite often”.)

[Hugh]

I may be wrong, but in truck service or commercial bus service extended idling is not nearly the problem motor home conversions create. We all know truckers do not willingly shut down because the engine is their source for heat and AC, but also provides white noise as they try to sleep in rest areas, truck stops or along the shoulder of the interstate ramps.

But then they get up and drive hard under load and “boil” out the fuel that has found its way into their oil.

We drive from point A to point B, shut down for a few days while we attend a rally, and then repeat the process on the return trip home possibly not running long or hard enough to get the fuel boiled out of the oil.

As to idling the engine, I don’t like to do it and it has nothing to do with the laws, or to prevent fuel from washing down my cylinder walls. I just dislike the noise. I prefer not to have the engine working next to my ears when I do my toad hookup or a pre-trip inspection unless I need the warm up time.

Ideally the needle should start to move on the temp gauge prior to hard acceleration or highway speeds but the truth is once I get even a little engine heat I am ready to go and take the acceleration a little easy until the temps come up.