Engine load at idle
 

Mrs. Spif's 08 Impala 3.5 v6 seems to be running the cooling fan quite frequently recently. The car has pretty much no good spot to mount my spare scangauge so I bought a Bluetooth dongle, dug her old android out of the drawer and downloaded the free version of torque to monitor data while I'm with her in the car. While I'm not super happy about it running around 200-205 almost all the time, I'm more intrigued by the load gauge reading in the 20s while at idle in drive AND park. I was shocked by this so switched my scangauge in the the Focus to read load...and it reads similar at idle on my commute today.

What are your cars idling at? I feel like 20s is high for load with lights and AC off but I'm basing that on no knowledge at all.

Thanks,

I have no clue on the load, but I would double check that there isn't or is a valence spoiler under the nose. Idk about impalas, but lots of GM's run warm when that little spoiler breaks off.

My little Nissan 1L consumes 16% total power output at ideal. This figure will go up to 22% with the air con, lights, fan, windscreen wiper etc. And theres me thinking 16 was high!

My cars are all over the place when it comes to load at idle. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Been keeping an eye on the Focus load readings past couple days. Idle load is high 20s or low 30s. Seems kinda crazy that idling cost that much power....

Because it doesn't. Get up to speed and put it in neutral. ~100mpg.

You guys are overlooking what 'load' means. It means if you're idle load is 20%, your engine is producing 20% of the torque it can at that RPM.

Is that the way load works? I thought it was a reading of how much the engine is being dragged down by internal friction, accessory drive, torque converter etc. Guess I've been thinking about the wrong way all this time; thanks for clarifying, oldtami :)

I ran our 60 liter Diesel genset yesterday for its monthly exercise. At 900 rpm it burns 16 gallons/ hour and is between 10 and 20% load. Normal engine speed is 1800 rpm, with no electrical load it burns 25 gallon/hour. There is a log of engine load over its life. All of our no load runs seem to fall in the 10 to 20% range. Just for you ecomodders it burns 125 gallons/hour at rated output of 2 megawatts. The four huge turbos sure sing at 2 megs.

Yea, but the engine is spinning at only 700rpm when idling, so the fuel burn is not that high.

Contrast that with having the car in gear going down a hill, where you keep load at 20% at 2500rpm, that's a much bigger waste of fuel. That's essentially what P&G is all about.

Also load might be calculated as manifold pressure vs. atmospheric pressure, but variable valve timing might be limiting the intake volume per stroke.

3.8L V6 20 in neutral 25 in drive.