Roger Long wrote:
"Marty" wrote
Funny, my diesel has a thermostat, runs at the same temp in idle as it
does at full throttle.

That's temperature measured in one spot and will be the same at idle as full
throttle if the cooling system is performing properly. When starting from
cold however, there are variations of temperature all over the engine that
are not measured or directly controlled by a thermostat.

Incidentally, idling an engine that has been run at normal power so that
everything is fully warmed up is probably not nearly as bad for it as
starting it and then running at idle for a couple hours to charge batteries.
Everything is warm and, although it may cool down a bit in some parts, it
won't go through a long period with some parts cold, minimial oil flow, and

To be fair, we're probably talking apples and oranges here. My diesel
is a little Volvo D1-13,
http://www.volvo.com/NR/exeres/FD791...C27D991387.htm

It probably quite quickly comes to the same temperature through out.
When I installed it I went over it with a infrared thermometer and found
very little variation in temp from the bottom of the block to top of the
head, may about 5deg C after 10 minutes of idling.

Cheers
Marty