I am looking at getting a new power stroke for a tow vehicle and daily driver. I only have a short drive to and from work and have heard that this is hard on the diesel, anybody first hnd knowledge or experience? I may drive it 50 miles total during the week

walk to work :D

as long as you take it for a long drive once in awhile it will be ok. Its not good for any engine to be run just a short time as condensation builds up and it doesnt get warm long enough to burn it off. It will help if you put a cold front on it (block off radiator) as it will heat up faster. I run the cold front on mine for half the year or more.

Hmm, in South Dakota you're not going to get the cab warm enough to keep the winshield clear by the time you get to work. And you aren't going to see fuel milage that Diesels are known for when it spends all it's time warming up.

And DON'T idle it in the driveway, Diesels take forever to warm up, and ideling cold is much worse than going ahead and giving it a little load.

If you have an AC outlet to plug it in at night, that will help a lot. Block heaters were optional in some model years, so make sure you have one on the truck you buy. Not too expensive to add the factory setup if it was omitted.

For the extra wear and tear you'll put on the Diesel, it is probably worth maintaining a POS gasser as a commuting vehicle...at least that's what I do. Get something that you only carry liability insurance on, and it is pretty economical.

It should be alright, but to help with warm-ups I'd consider getting the AIC option (auxillary idle control) because the Powerstroke has such a low idle that you will incurr what is known as wet-stacking. What happens is that the engine doesn't make enough heat at idle to burn all of the fuel. The result is that you get carbon deposits on the exhaust valves; which leads to sticking valves. With the AIC you can set the idle up as high as you want (~1200rpm)

JP

Thanks for the responses. I knew about the block heater, I think everything here comes with a block heater. It will get driven more on the weekends so I guess I should be fine.

Walking to work, even 2 miles, when it is -25 degreees is not an option.

Wish I could keep a cheap gasser but I already have to many vehicles TJ and FJ-40 and the wife is gonna shoot me if I get any more.

The new ones already idle up when cold, its programmed in

At those temperatures, it would probably be worth running sythetic oil, due to the much lower pour point. The injection system on the powerstroke is fairly sensitive to oil, and Mobil-1 is NOT recommended. Fellows running Amsoil rave about it. (I use dinosaur stuff myself)

Even if you have an outlet, and/or garage, your employer probably doesn't provide such, and I'm guessing you want the truck to start after a long day at work.

True the new ones idle up when cold - even my '99 does. But the only reason it goes up is based on oil temp, so if the truck hasn't cooled off completely between runs it won't idle up again. As for oil I've been running Rotella.

JP