Hours On Engine Question

robytar · October 20, 2011

Hello, I was a little curious on how to use the engine hour meter or what it's purpose is. My truck in a 2002 and the hour meter displays 1260.6 hrs. The truck just turned 28,000miles and I was wondering how to compare hours to mileage. It seems that 1260hrs is a lot for such low mileage.

Thanks!

Patch6713 · October 20, 2011

Personally I don't use the hour function on my truck. However, at my fire department they use the hour meter to help determine when to do an oil change. Since our fire trucks don't put many miles on but can sit running for hours on end, performing an oil change based on miles along will be inaccurate. I believe that our mechanic uses a factor that one engine hour adds 25 miles (diesel motors). For example, only 1000 miles may have been driven but has been running for 200 hours, so it has the equivalent of 6000 miles on it. I don't know if his conversion factors are accurate but that is what he uses.

For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours.

Volucris · October 20, 2011

80,000 miles and 401 hours. that means you average 200 mph.

Personally I don't use the hour function on my truck. However, at my fire department they use the hour meter to help determine when to do an oil change. Since our fire trucks don't put many miles on but can sit running for hours on end, performing an oil change based on miles along will be inaccurate. I believe that our mechanic uses a factor that one engine hour adds 25 miles (diesel motors). For example, only 1000 miles may have been driven but has been running for 200 hours, so it has the equivalent of 6000 miles on it. I don't know if his conversion factors are accurate but that is what he uses.

For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours.

Vortec-Z71 · October 20, 2011

Hello, I was a little curious on how to use the engine hour meter or what it's purpose is. My truck in a 2002 and the hour meter displays 1260.6 hrs. The truck just turned 28,000miles and I was wondering how to compare hours to mileage. It seems that 1260hrs is a lot for such low mileage.

Thanks!

Your hours seem about right. I have about 100,000 miles on my truck with roughly 3,000 hours.

txab · October 20, 2011

Personally I don't use the hour function on my truck. However, at my fire department they use the hour meter to help determine when to do an oil change. Since our fire trucks don't put many miles on but can sit running for hours on end, performing an oil change based on miles along will be inaccurate. I believe that our mechanic uses a factor that one engine hour adds 25 miles (diesel motors). For example, only 1000 miles may have been driven but has been running for 200 hours, so it has the equivalent of 6000 miles on it. I don't know if his conversion factors are accurate but that is what he uses.

For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours.

Edit: Everyone else beat me to it. ^^^^

Your IPC has done the Engine Hour reset that has been noted many times on here. You would have to average 200 mph to put 80k miles on, in 400 hours.

OP's reading is more realistic. Average 22 mph over 1260 hours

robytar · October 20, 2011

"For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours."

Wow! Thats like a higher end Cessna 182 lol!

Patch6713 · October 20, 2011

80,000 miles and 401 hours. that means you average 200 mph.

Personally I don't use the hour function on my truck. However, at my fire department they use the hour meter to help determine when to do an oil change. Since our fire trucks don't put many miles on but can sit running for hours on end, performing an oil change based on miles along will be inaccurate. I believe that our mechanic uses a factor that one engine hour adds 25 miles (diesel motors). For example, only 1000 miles may have been driven but has been running for 200 hours, so it has the equivalent of 6000 miles on it. I don't know if his conversion factors are accurate but that is what he uses.

For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours.

Good point. Double checked it and it is roughly 80,000 and 401. And it is definaly not since my last oil change because then I would have only averaged 1.8mph.

Edit: Looked into it and must have had the engine hour reset (obviously).

00Silverado4x4 · October 20, 2011

Unfortunately a great many of our trucks have hourmeters that periodically reset so the hours don't mean much to me. I've got ~90k miles with only a few hundred hours. Not really possible.

century7 · October 20, 2011

Unfortunately a great many of our trucks have hourmeters that periodically reset so the hours don't mean much to me. I've got ~90k miles with only a few hundred hours. Not really possible.

I think mine reset at some point. I do not know if i did it by accident or the tech that did my oil change reset it instead of the oil life or if after so many hours it just reset itself. I am guessing there is something you can hook up to the computer that will tell you the true hours on the motor.

00Silverado4x4 · October 20, 2011

Unfortunately a great many of our trucks have hourmeters that periodically reset so the hours don't mean much to me. I've got ~90k miles with only a few hundred hours. Not really possible.

I think mine reset at some point. I do not know if i did it by accident or the tech that did my oil change reset it instead of the oil life or if after so many hours it just reset itself. I am guessing there is something you can hook up to the computer that will tell you the true hours on the motor.

I've asked that very question here & a dealership & no, there is no other location the hours are stored. I can't accidently reset mine due to truck programming so mine is just whatever bug is in there does the reset for me.

jblakeney · October 20, 2011

If you've had the Instrument Cluster replaced, your counting on somebody to write it down, and somebody to program it back in the new cluster.

193k and 5893.8h or about 32.75mph average..... (considering 80-90% of that has been interstate driving with me behind the wheel, the average should be quite high in comparison to that), IPC has never been out of my truck and never reset.

I idle a pretty good bit....... Its hot down here in the south in the summer. And cold in the winter.

Jbo

00Silverado4x4 · October 20, 2011

If you've had the Instrument Cluster replaced, your counting on somebody to write it down, and somebody to program it back in the new cluster.

193k and 5893.8h or about 32.75mph average..... (considering 80-90% of that has been interstate driving with me behind the wheel, the average should be quite high in comparison to that), IPC has never been out of my truck and never reset.

I idle a pretty good bit....... Its hot down here in the south in the summer. And cold in the winter.

Jbo

Instrument cluster has never been removed, or even unbolted from dash to my knowledge. I bought the truck new so no other owners to worry about. Still working on factory battery so the only option there is if dealer disconnected battery. I've seen the hourmeter as high as 1k+ hours & then it reset itself without any work being done in between so I have whatever electrical gremlin in my truck. I don't have a need for knowing engine hours so it's really no big deal to me.

wurgs · October 21, 2011

80,000 miles and 401 hours. that means you average 200 mph.

Personally I don't use the hour function on my truck. However, at my fire department they use the hour meter to help determine when to do an oil change. Since our fire trucks don't put many miles on but can sit running for hours on end, performing an oil change based on miles along will be inaccurate. I believe that our mechanic uses a factor that one engine hour adds 25 miles (diesel motors). For example, only 1000 miles may have been driven but has been running for 200 hours, so it has the equivalent of 6000 miles on it. I don't know if his conversion factors are accurate but that is what he uses.

For a comparison, my truck has 80,000 on it and 401 engine hours.

Good point. Double checked it and it is roughly 80,000 and 401. And it is definaly not since my last oil change because then I would have only averaged 1.8mph.

Edit: Looked into it and must have had the engine hour reset (obviously).

My 05 2500HD truck at work has randomly rest 4 times that I've noticed. It now has 176000 miles and only 238 hours on it.

jro909 · October 24, 2011

i have 123k with around 3300 hours but then again i let my truck warm up here and their

elcamino · October 24, 2011

Policy at the DOT where I worked for 30 yrs was, all trucks change oil every 5,000 miles or 160 hrs, no time limits like 1 yrs etc. It was not unusual for some trucks to have 160 hrs and less than a 1,000 miles in that period.