How bad is idling for extended time for the motor ?

[Hodge]

As above, is idling a motor for extended time bad for it ? I'm talking about 2-3 hour stints of it just sitting there and idling away ?
Specifically a 4.2.

A relative is looking at buying a 4.2 ute, already setup for his field of work, but because it has an added PTO ??? unit to the engine, it means it'll have to sit the idling for several hours at a time.

Most of the trucks at my work, cherry pickers, have engines that idle sometimes all day, and no issues there, but thought I'd ask about the patrol engines.

[BSRT.Beast]

I know when I was driving trucks the mechanics used to bitch about idling for to long as it glazed over the heads. Although we just used to up the revs a tad problem solved.

[Hodge]

Thanks. Our trucks at work rev up every now and then, but I think it is mainly to build up more hyd. pressure in the pump, rather than some sort of anti-glazing feature.
The ute he is looking at, may or may not have a feature, which does the similar built it, but just don't know yet. He is just doing the homework before he commits.

[BigRAWesty]

There was a factory option for a pto out put on the transfer case.
To be honest I can't see the issue. The oils flowing, waters hot, it's only using the fuel it needs..
We had a hydraulic setup on our farm ute and when screening seed it use to sit for 8-10 hours at around 1100rpm just turning the old vk power steering pump (converted to hydraulic pump) and that engine made 620*** on the clock before giving in.. God knows how many hours though. Probably into the million hours..

[the evil twin]

If he is using the PTO why would it be idling?

If it is idling a lot or has very little load I would suggest a seperate stationary engine would be better suited but maybe not a big issue either way.

There are any amount of engines out there that do long idle periods, trains, boats, trucks, generators, esp tractors etc etc
The lower the RPM the engine is designed for the better off you are.
The TD42 is a slow revving engine and has a working heritage so would be much better suited than say a ZD30

[Hodge]

Thanks gents.
Just spoke to him, and he told me a bit more about it. Pto is utilizing the low gear output on the transfer case, driving a hydraulic pump. For this reason apparently , the 4 x4 capability is obsolete.

I have no idea how this is possible??? Usually it's an extra output. Unless it's a completely custom x-fer case designed for this very purpose.

The hyd. Pump drives several attachable units, from small pile driver to a small crane mounted on the tray.
There is also apparently, an added pulley under the hood which drives some sort of a external cooling pump for some of the periph erals this thing can power.

Ute is a early 2000 4.2 and has 230k on it, and supposedly has been fitted with this rig majority of of its life and engine never skipped a beat... It's fitted with an engine hour meter which has about 23000 hours on it.

I guess if it survived this far, its safe you assume, idling wouldn't hurt it.

Tapatalked from S6

[the evil twin]

Yeah, should be fine...

[Hodge]

Thanks. I forgot to mention. His biggest concern was the heat ? Especially in summer months , not a lot of movement of air through the radiator etc...

Tapatalked from S6

[BigRAWesty]

The td42 has a huge fan. And the viscous hub it's always drawing some sorta air..