Diesel newbie driving pattern question

[staying_tuned]

We are in (and love) the Poconos. Everything outside of what can be had at a gas station is is a 1 hour round-trip minimum with 85% of that being on highway. We rarely see stop and go traffic outside of the seasonal eco-tourism in the town if we happen to get caught in it, which we are well north of and try to avoid. I do make runs up to our closest gas station for random stuff. More-so lately just as a reason to drive this amazing machine. That drive is about 30 minutes round-trip. The rest of the time we are on trails.

When folks say short trips kill diesels, does that mean the sort single digit mile trips one might have in a city or urban area or would say a 20 mile trip be considered short for this motor?

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips!

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[FutureOdin]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. It'll let you know if it needs a regen, and will tell you to drive for 30 minutes at 60 mph (or something around those numbers). I think there is a lot of fearmongering about how to drive diesels and if you don't do this/that you'll end up killing it early... bah.

Just drive it like you would any other vehicle, enjoy it!

 

[jeepin48]

Sounds like you will be driving a perfect schedule for it. I try to drive two 30 minute highway(55+mph) trips per tank of fuel. You should also give it at least a few minutes to warm up before you get to heavy on the throttle.

 

[Awhitebuff]

I am in your neck of the woods and also have a Diesel. Let it warm up a bit and let it cool down if you had it under some load. Other than that you should be fine. I'm loving mine so far! Oh yeah, damn tourists are really bad this year.

 

[WXman]

The sky is blue.

Let's see how long it takes ShadowsPapa to correct me and say it's technically azure. ?

On a serious note, short trips won't "kill" a diesel engine. You may see slightly more fuel dillution in the oil, but if you stick to the <8,000 mile schedule for oil and filter changes like you should be, it won't be a problem. The ECU is smart enough to clean out the DPF more efficiently on the Gen 3 engine. The new emissions upgrades on this engine are much better than what the Gen 2 engine had.

 

[staying_tuned]

Not to open a can of worms but is there an additive, given my patterns, that would be beneficial and/or just plain generally a good idea? I’m a fan of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it but I paid for that not running meth on DI -> FI tuned cars primarily to avoid having to walnut blast the intake manifolds every 20k miles.

Any goofy stuff like that with these motors that additive will help long term? I did research this topic and many swear by x, y, or z for some granular reason. Overwhelmed me quickly and said screw it for now.

 

[Overland-2021]

Here is what I understand through my reading - I'm not an engineer so if I get anything wrong please correct me...
Diesel is a mixture of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons - some are heavier than others and have hight viscosities. For the most complete burn the fuel must be mixed with oxygen, or atomized, and be hot enough. Too low a temp and its resistance to flow gets so high it starts to clump up. Thats becomes soot.

Diesels are more sensitive to build up of unburnt carbon (soot) when combustions is not hot enough.

So you get more soot if:
- If you do a lot of short trips your engine will have more time with lower combustion temperatures.
- If you do not load the engine often enough - Those who service diesel generators see this with engines that run below 25% often - results in what's called "wet stacking"
-if you pour on the fuel too quickly - esp at very low rpms. (with modern computer controlled fuel injection this is less of an issue)

The DPF and region cycles help keep the exhaust from spoiling the air - they use extra fuel and a catalyst to burn off the soot (cooks the filter clean) and inject urea into what left so it precipitates out.

So the way you drive it will affect its performance, economy and longevity.

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