these are probably really elementary type questions, but i am very new to diesels. questions are for newer models 03' and up

1.) when you are starting the truck how long do you  need to wait to actually turn the key in the ignition? i know most newer diesels dont require allowing the glow plug to warm up but i was just curious.

2.)when the truck is actually started up, how long do you need to allow the engine to warm up before taking off?  

HI txdiesel, ON MY TRUCK I GIVE THE GLOW-PLUGS ABOUT 10 SECONDS BEFORE I START THE TRUCK!!! ONCE THE TRUCK IS STARTED IF YOU DON'T GIVE IT ABOUT 30 seconds, IT RUNS A LITTLE SLUGGISH???  

it depends wether your truck has an intake heater or glow plugs. if it has either of these youl have to leave the key on untill the wait to start light goes off or about 10 secs.  give the truck at least 15 minutes on a cold day below 30 deg. to warm up. on a warmer day in the 70's a minute will do, but the longer you leave it warm up the better off ul be  

i usually wait about 20-30 seconds or whenever the wait to start lights goes off, then i try to let it warm up about 5 minutes during mild weather and longer during cold weather, if i dont use the block heater, if  i use the block heater, i still give it 5 minutes.  typically you'll want the truc kto be up to around 130-150 degrees before you take off, youll get better fuel mileage this way as well  

ive read on some places that short trips, like just to the store for a can of snuff or whatever, is not reccommended for the truck. if i use mine as a daily driver (which involves a lot of "honey go to the store and get some milk" from my wife) is this going to have negative effects of the life of the engine or anything else?  

I know some guys put a "turbo timer" on the truck that lets the engine idle down after a while to keep oil circulating around the turbo. Regardless, you should be able to get well over 100,000 miles out of it. If you do a lot of short trips, I'd go by the "severe" maintenance schedule in your owner's manual, since it does put a little more wear & tear on the engine, but nothing to be overly concerned about.  

yep, just change your oil a little more often or run synthetic oils for town driving, prevents the build up of carbon inside the motor.  but heck, my stock turbo has over 200k on it, and its fine.  if you get the dge juice with attitude, it has a turbo timer built in with it, otherwise you can buy one seperate, they run about 140-200+ depending on the manufacturer  

at about how many miles should the oil be changed? is it 3000 like a car or no? ive read on some places that some of these diesels will go like 50k without an oil change with some of the upgrades they have. also just a side question, dukeboy are you able to blow smoke with that set up you have for your signature on your posts? thanks guys  

dukeboy_318:
yep, just change your oil a little more often or run synthetic oils for town driving, prevents the build up of carbon inside the motor.  but heck, my stock turbo has over 200k on it, and its fine.  if you get the dge juice with attitude, it has a turbo timer built in with it, otherwise you can buy one seperate, they run about 140-200+ depending on the manufacturer

how many miles is recommended before an oil change on a diesel? is it 3000 like a gasoline engine or no b/c ive read on some places that some diesels have go like 50k without an oil change with some kind of upgrades. also on a side note, dukeboy are you able to blow a lot of smoke with the setup you have in your signature at the bottom of your posts? thanks again  

dukeboy_318:
yep, just change your oil a little more often or run synthetic oils for town driving, prevents the build up of carbon inside the motor.  but heck, my stock turbo has over 200k on it, and its fine.  if you get the dge juice with attitude, it has a turbo timer built in with it, otherwise you can buy one seperate, they run about 140-200+ depending on the manufacturer

txdiesel:
how many miles is recommended before an oil change on a diesel? is it 3000 like a gasoline engine or no b/c ive read on some places that some diesels have go like 50k without an oil change with some kind of upgrades. also on a side note, dukeboy are you able to blow a lot of smoke with the setup you have in your signature at the bottom of your posts? thanks again

i try to change mine between 6k and 8k. i wouldnt run it farther then that unless you run synthetics.  Also try to run with a oil filter other then FRAM, something like Fleetguard or K&N or some other performance filter, frams are junk.

With my set up, i can smoke like no other.  When i turn the edge up to level 5 and barely get on it, it smokes soooo bad you cant see the car behind you.  ive got a picture in readers rides showing the smoke BEFORE the edge was installed.  ive got to get another now that ive installed the edge.

hope this helps  

another quick question...what about gear ratios, i want to eventually add enough upgrades to have a pretty powerful truck. i dont understand how they work. is 4.10 the best a bone stock cummins has and if so how much are upgrades to the gear ratio?  

with gears it all comes down to how heavy a load you pull or tire size you run. example if you want a fuel sipping truck that dosent pull heavy loads use a 3.42 stock on most trucks are 3.73 the higher the number the lower the gear ratio  

depends on what you want it to do, if you want a truck that will launch quicker and top out at abour 100 miles an hour, stay with 4.10s, dont gear it any lower if you use the truck as a daily driver.\

my truck has 3.54s, i can launch decent, top out over a 130 mph and still pull like no other, plus i get about 18-20 mpg average.  i think you can get 3.91s and 4.56s and put in it but i would not lower then 4.10s(numerically higher, ex: 4.56s) for driveablility.  

im actually thinking about gearing one of our cummins down to 2.76s and see what that does for fuel mileage, but not mine, 3.54s are about the tallest gears you can go with and still be able to pull a trailer without stumbling the motor  

what about on an 06 cummins, will i be able to get smoke out of a similar setup? (edge attitude w/juice, mbrp 5 inch exhaust, and afe stage 2 magnum force intake)