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Does anyone out there own one of these? Is it necessary (recommended in the owners manual), on a cold start, to let it idle for 15-20 minutes before driving it. I've always read that the quickest way to warm an engine up is to drive it, not sit and idle. Is this not the case for the Excursion with a diesel engine? Is a long idle period what Ford recommends? Thanks.

Quote, originally posted by djb383 »Does anyone out there own one of these?No, but you can fit three of my Hyundais inside it. lol!

Plus one Vibe.

Hmm, as to your question, I wonder if you could go over to pickuptruck.com and ask them? See if maybe some F-superduty-whatever people can help, same truck underneath.They'll surely be able to help. I don't think you would have to idle the thing 15 minutes, that's a bit much. Especially with you being down that far south, it doesn't get too terribly cold.

i think djb was talking about the engine itself being cold, e.g. being parked overnight, not the outside tempurature and i'm not sure about the cold start issue. i worked for one appliance place and a driver left his delivery truck idling most of the time and said that he let it run for at least 15 mins before he'd even put it in gear. but at the 2nd appliance place i worked at, the other drivers would start the diesel truck n drive right off. i rarely drove that truck, but that one had the most reliable engine. too bad everything else was fallin apart on the damn thing. the 3rd place had brand new diesels and i would always let them warm up before goin out. i figure it's better safe than sorry, replacing engines isn't cheap.i probably didn't give you the answer you were looking for, but i jus wanted to give my opinion

Hey thanks for the info. I was really curious to know what the Ford, cold start, procedure was in the owners manual. Thanks again.

you can donwwload ford owners manuals from https://www.fleet.ford.com/mai...t.asp but I didn't see the excusion as an option.

If you select MY 2005 or before it is on there. In English and Spanish!Good find, joat!

I know they need to cool off (let the turbo cool etc. ) but never heard of letting it warm up. Im sure it would be better because of the high compression. GL hope you find what your looking for

Most turbo-diesel trucks give that recommendation

my take on this is that if it's in the owners manual, it can't be that god awful of advice, can it?

This is a diesel specfic thing... Not sure why, I have never owned a diesel but I have heard of it too.

Isn't there a wait time with diesels between when you turn the key to ON but before you can turn it to START?15-20 mins must burn a lot of fuel - diesel or not.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Isn't there a wait time with diesels between when you turn the key to ON but before you can turn it to START?yep, i found that out when i rented a u-haul. they said it would burn up the glowplug (whatever the hell that is) if you didn't do it.

Yep that is true, the times have gotten quicker then the past. Oh and drunken, a glow plug in a diesel takes the place of a spark plug in a gasoline engine. That is all I know about them!

Since a diesel engine uses heat from compression in order to ignite the fuel (rather than a spark plug like a gasoline engine) I'd say it's not unreasonable for them to require a longer warm up time. They CAN be driven before they're warm, but the run and smoke horribly if you do.As for glow plugs, they're used to heat the cylinder enough to get the fuel to ignite when the engine is cranked. Once the cylinder is hot, the glow plug shuts off. They don't run all the time like a spark plug does.

Same goes for boating. Our sailbot with the 10HP diesel, we have to warm up the cylinder via a glow plug before starting. Usually 5-10 seconds. Although I am sure it is less for diesel trucks now.Hence people with diesels up north have engine block heaters they plug in, reduces warm up drastically.