So now that it's getting cold here I turned on the high idle so when I remote start my truck it will warm up faster this winter.  I have it set for 30 second delay however it never kicks on.  I know the temps have been down low enough to trigger it but it just wont kick on.  I had it work once when I first turned it on and now it hasn't turned on again.

 

Any insight is appreciated.

Hi Idle will only work in power level 0 or in conjunction with warm-up mode. You need to either manually set the power level to 0 or also turn on the warm-up mode (which will set the power level to 0) for the temperature you want. 

Little secret... Warm up speed is based on how much EGT's you can produce. So normal 800 RPM idle will produce 250*F roughly. High idle on 6 cylinders will bare reach over 300*F. 

 

Now if you to use the Cummins high idle software and use 3 cylinder high idle you can push upwards into the 600*F range. 

 

Now add an exhaust brake 6 cylinder is like 600*F EGT and 3 cylinder is 900-1000*F EGT's. This extreme amount of EGT's can heat an engine from -25*F to over 170*F coolant temperature in under 10 minutes. Exhaust brake and 6 cylinder is roughly less than 15 minutes from -25*F. 6 Cylinder high idle no exhaust brake can be still a long 30 minutes from sub zero. This is not suggested or advise for long idle times warming up. Should be kept as short as possible. 

 

Hence where the design of my high idle kit came from. 

 

This is another reason I don't like remote starts. You should be starting gain enough heat to make it safe to drive (visibility clearing ice) but get rolling ASAP. You should never really idle till full warmed it a waste of fuel. I've measured 1-2 gallon consumed just to warm up 1 start cycle from bone cold to fully warmed. High idle can consume as high as 10-12 GPH of diesel.This decreases as engine temp rises. Just for a point of reference, 20 MPG @ 55 MPH is roughly 2.75 GPH.