Engine Hours....What do they really mean?

[John Nantz]

Northwest Yanmar Distributor says don't idle

Stillraining (yup, and it is!) - The Yanmar marine diesel distributor for the Northwest, Cascade Diesel of Seattle, had seminars on maintaining Yanmar engines and they were extremely adamant about not letting the engine sit there and idle (like for charging batteries, for example) because they said it would carbon up. Granted, this was several years ago, but this piece of advice has stuck with me for all that time.The Yanmars seem to be designed a little differently from the typical American diesel of yore, like maybe optimized for an output range or RPM. Or maybe the combustion chamber is a little different design? Anyhow, just wanted to pass this along.By the way, when I worked in the Antarctic we ran all the engines 24/7, too. And that was with really expensive fuel costs. I'll still never forgive my wife for not letting me buy a, literally, like-new Case 480D backhoe on a tilt trailer, which "was driven by a little old contractor on weekends". Actually, he was retired and passed away and his widow was selling it. It was kept in a barn. Arrrhg. $13,500! It also had some nice options. Okay, so this was back in the mid '80s but it was still a bargain.

 

[John Nantz]

Northwest Yanmar Distributor says don't idle

Stillraining (yup, and it is!) - The Yanmar marine diesel distributor for the Northwest, Cascade Diesel of Seattle, had seminars on maintaining Yanmar engines and they were extremely adamant about not letting the engine sit there and idle (like for charging batteries, for example) because they said it would carbon up. Granted, this was several years ago, but this piece of advice has stuck with me for all that time.The Yanmars seem to be designed a little differently from the typical American diesel of yore, like maybe optimized for an output range or RPM. Or maybe the combustion chamber is a little different design? Anyhow, just wanted to pass this along.By the way, when I worked in the Antarctic we ran all the engines 24/7, too. And that was with really expensive fuel costs. I'll still never forgive my wife for not letting me buy a, literally, like-new Case 480D backhoe on a tilt trailer, which "was driven by a little old contractor on weekends". Actually, he was retired and passed away and his widow was selling it. It was kept in a barn. Arrrhg. $13,500! It also had some nice options. Okay, so this was back in the mid '80s but it was still a bargain.

 

[John Nantz]

Northwest Yanmar Distributor says don't idle

Stillraining (yup, and it is!) - The Yanmar marine diesel distributor for the Northwest, Cascade Diesel of Seattle, had seminars on maintaining Yanmar engines and they were extremely adamant about not letting the engine sit there and idle (like for charging batteries, for example) because they said it would carbon up. Granted, this was several years ago, but this piece of advice has stuck with me for all that time.The Yanmars seem to be designed a little differently from the typical American diesel of yore, like maybe optimized for an output range or RPM. Or maybe the combustion chamber is a little different design? Anyhow, just wanted to pass this along.By the way, when I worked in the Antarctic we ran all the engines 24/7, too. And that was with really expensive fuel costs. I'll still never forgive my wife for not letting me buy a, literally, like-new Case 480D backhoe on a tilt trailer, which "was driven by a little old contractor on weekends". Actually, he was retired and passed away and his widow was selling it. It was kept in a barn. Arrrhg. $13,500! It also had some nice options. Okay, so this was back in the mid '80s but it was still a bargain.

 

[John Nantz]

Northwest Yanmar Distributor says don't idle

Stillraining (yup, and it is!) - The Yanmar marine diesel distributor for the Northwest, Cascade Diesel of Seattle, had seminars on maintaining Yanmar engines and they were extremely adamant about not letting the engine sit there and idle (like for charging batteries, for example) because they said it would carbon up. Granted, this was several years ago, but this piece of advice has stuck with me for all that time.The Yanmars seem to be designed a little differently from the typical American diesel of yore, like maybe optimized for an output range or RPM. Or maybe the combustion chamber is a little different design? Anyhow, just wanted to pass this along.By the way, when I worked in the Antarctic we ran all the engines 24/7, too. And that was with really expensive fuel costs. I'll still never forgive my wife for not letting me buy a, literally, like-new Case 480D backhoe on a tilt trailer, which "was driven by a little old contractor on weekends". Actually, he was retired and passed away and his widow was selling it. It was kept in a barn. Arrrhg. $13,500! It also had some nice options. Okay, so this was back in the mid '80s but it was still a bargain.

 

[Stillraining]

That would have been

a good buy alright. A 20 ton tilt is now $15,000.00 used. I have to conceed to a distribtors recomendations to other peoples investments, I just would not let it afect my personal opperation of any diesel. And I want to also let every one know that thease are my theories made from 38 years living every work day with a diesel engine as a meanes of livlyhood in some way or another, so please take it or leave it as that.  Thanks for the heads up though I will cross them off my list of recomended replacment engines. If I needed to replace my prime mover with new, which I hope I never do , I would go with John Deere anyway. With any diesel I would be more concerned with the reduced flow from the water pump creating havoc then anything else. On large engines like in our D6 dozer you would not want to idel it say on a steep slope as the water pump wont push water to the uphill cylinders and you will crack a head. But on level ground no problum.