I was wondering what is a 3 cyl idle and why do they do that?

 

3 cyls pushing on the other 3 dead cyls aids in warming up the engine and reduces fuel wash down on cold cylinders during warm up.
A Smarty will enable it. You will know when it kicks in. It sounds as if the motor is coming apart.

 

You can have it enabled by the dealer or using a Smarty.



Luke

 

Dealerships in my area want like 100 bux to do it,

2 of the local stealerships didn't even know what i was talking about.

I oppted to wait to buy a smarty :P

 

You'll like the Smarty. Gives a lot of low end power. And it's always handy to use as a code reader too

 

You can borrow a smarty, download 1 program, unload the program and voila, you will have the 3 cyl idle for ever after that.

 

 

Here is my lengthy write up on how to do it and build a manual high idle switch for it...
High Idle

And if you need to get the dealer to enable it... There is the TSB on it...
Dodge TSB

Basically like Luke said you can barrow a Smarty and enable it. But like myself there isn't anyone around here that owners a Smarty. I got lucky and Bob Wagner was gracous enough to mail me his personal Smarty to barrow.

As for my switches it wonderful to be able to select standard high idle or 3 cylinder at will. Like typically I'm out on a vehicle accident and need to leave my light and red beacon going for safety reasons. So it nice to kick the 2 switches and have high idle to keep the alternator going and EGT up to a manageable level!


(My truck is in the background - lights are running and high idle is up!)

As for the 3 cylinder mode. It drops 1,2,3 and runs on 4,5,6. This create4s much more heat rapidily. Without a exhaust brake it will create about 500-600*F worth of pyro. With a exhaust brake it can rise as far as 800-900*F worth of pyro as seen in my movies. This allows for FAST warm up under 10 minutes you'll have 170*F worth of coolant temp and it cancels automatically!

 

Should be lots of guys around your area that have a Smarty. Have you been to the NWBombers site?

 

Yeap... And I demanded to have my account deleted... Rough crowd...