What is the longest you have let your 80 idle for? (1 Viewer)

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Maybe 10 years ago I went outside around 7pm to go to the store, started the engine, got a phone call, decided to walk back in to the house. It was a long phone call, maybe an hour, but once I hung up I totally forgot about going to the store or that the engine of my 80 was running.

So watched a few hours of TV, went to bed, got up late the next day (Sat), watched TV and finally around 1pm decided to go out.

As I approached the vehicle and before I opened the door, which was unlocked, I spotted the red alternator light was on and started to worry, why the heck was that on??

Then I saw the key in the ignition and remembered, oh kerapp. The engine idled for 17-18 hours before it ran out of gas (had just gotten gas the day before, maybe 3/4 tank).

Lucky for me there was a gas station about 1/4 mile from my house, and mostly downhill. So hopped in the vehicle, started it up, got some momentum, shut it down, coasted in neutral until I got to the turn across traffic, waited for an opening, started it up again, engine died in about two seconds, but I got enough momentum to coast to the gas pump.

No issues afterwards that I could attribute to that event.

FWIW.
 
Wow. 18 hours is the new record. Who can beat that.. :clap:
 
In about 1995 my Father had to go to the hospital by ambulance, my mother followed in her car. She had been in the hospital about 14 hours and I told her I would get her car. She couldn’t find the keys but had a second key.

In went to the ER lot and her car was blocked in by other cars, I walked over to the car and the attendant said “Mon, that car has been running all day”. It was winter and she had the heat on full blast and that car was warm and toasty inside. I don’t know how she did it but the Buick had two keys then, one for the door locks and one for ignition. Somehow she locked the car with the engine running.

No harm done, I didn’t have to warm it up for her, that’s for sure.
 
Is there a formula that would allow us to calculate how much fuel 6 injectors would squirt into the cylinders each hour at 650 rpm? We could calculate a theoretical maximum number of hours on a 25 gallon tank..
 
Is there a formula that would allow us to calculate how much fuel 6 injectors would squirt into the cylinders each hour at 650 rpm? We could calculate a theoretical maximum number of hours on a 25 gallon tank..
I’m sure there’s already a GPH rating somewhere on a 1FZ-FE. I’ll see what I can dig up. 😂. I’m bored.
 
I have never worried about extended idling in my vehicles. As was mentioned earlier, fleet vehicles are often on for multiple shifts, the majority of that time spent idling.

In the late 80's I worked as a driver at a wilderness canoe base in the North Maine Woods. It was our policy to never shut the vans (full size Chevy vans) off on a run. We were out in remote areas and you were on your own if your vehicle died and you couldn't restart it. Additionally, if your battery went dead, you lost radio communications.

Many times I would have the truck on for 24-48 hours. I would let it idle all night while I slept on the roof rack parked in some random clearcut. No harm ever seemed to come to the engines and I used the same van for several years in a row.
 
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There was a thread a few years ago on the 80 series section where someone asked a similar question regarding the longest someone had gone without turning the engine off. People gave their comments of driving across the country for X number of hours and never turned the engine off, even while getting gas. Some stories were pretty impressive.

Then out of nowhere some guy chimes in with a post saying him and his son had traveled somewhere.... like Alaska and it was very cold. Believe they slept in their cruiser. They never turned the car off in fear it would have trouble restarting due to the arctic temps. Believe I remember the story saying they ran the car for like 6 days with a mix of idling and driving. I'm trying to remember all of this from memory so don't hold me to every detail.
 
I did something similar albeit for half the time. A few years back i left @NLXTACY pad when he lived in cali. I think it was around lunchtime on the Friday when i left. Got caught in the usual LA traffic but made it to a place called Christmas -possibly in Arizona and bedded down for the night in the truck with the engine idling the whole time so i had cool air. Drove from there to a rest area near Houston and bedded down again with engine running. Drove from there to orlando and arrived around 4am on Monday morning. So roughly 2.5 days with engine never off. That is the longest i day i have ever had behind the wheel but i made it to the office for a 9am meeting on monday.
 
I did something similar albeit for half the time. A few years back i left @NLXTACY pad when he lived in cali. I think it was around lunchtime on the Friday when i left. Got caught in the usual LA traffic but made it to a place called Christmas -possibly in Arizona and bedded down for the night in the truck with the engine idling the whole time so i had cool air. Drove from there to a rest area near Houston and bedded down again with engine running. Drove from there to orlando and arrived around 4am on Monday morning. So roughly 2.5 days with engine never off. That is the longest i day i have ever had behind the wheel but i made it to the office for a 9am meeting on monday.
You never shut it off to get gas?
 
I almost never shut it off when getting gas especially in the summer months with all the heat & humidity.
Pardon my ignorance, but what does the heat/ humidity factory into leaving a vehicle running during refueling?

I also grew up in OR, so it's always been a habit to shut the car off so that the attendant would fill your tank.
 
Pardon my ignorance, but what does the heat/ humidity factory into leaving a vehicle running during refueling?

I also grew up in OR, so it's always been a habit to shut the car off so that the attendant would fill your tank.
If it's hot and humid, the AC will stay on so it's nice and cool inside when you climb back in after being outside in the boiling heat and humidity for 3 minutes.

If it's cold outside, the interior will remain dry and toasty for your reentry and you can warm your fingers quickly on the already warm steering wheel after having been outside in the "severe" cold for 3 minutes.
 
Everything that @BILT4ME said plus in that truck I had a radio with a super flakey bluetooth connection which would cut out as soon as I cranked the engine. At that point it was a roll of the dice if it reconnected again for the next phase of the trip. Small things matter a lot on a long drive :)
 
These are forklift motors, idling shouldn’t be an issue.
 

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