dkulsy

I live in 'it's really not that cold' Oak Grove, MN and my toy car -01 vert - has been under cover humming Christmas Songs with the battery tender since mid November. I am itching to start her up - just back out of the garage a little - don't want road salt pollution. Would it be a good or bad Idea to start and run for about 15 minutes? I would back up only 20 ft so no trans/diff action. What do you think?
Thanks
Dave

Paul 75 L82

I don't any reason that it could hurt the car to start it up for a few minutes.

WKMCD

Run it for 30 minutes or so. Let it get good and hot. That way any condensation in the engine/exhaust will evaporate.

Glock 23C

20 degrees today. not too bad. I fight the urge to start it b/c of the condensation issue. But what the hell, if it makes you feel good, do it. Nothing major to hurt. I just looked outside, it's snowing.

andrec10

My Uncle who is a Engineer said it is better to leave it, instead of starting it, unless you run it for at least 30 mins to burn off condensation.

killain

I've read that 70% of engine wear is at start-up. I park mine in the garage as soon as the "Brine" goes down (it's Salt water with a few other nasty chemicals that PENN-Dot puts down last week), and I leave mine for the winter with a full tank of Fuel and the battery float charger on it. It can't wear if it's not moving. Me, I'd leave it alone till spring !

El original

Nope, dont start it..could do some unrepairable damage..lol.

Varmit

Send it to me in San Diego, and I will drive it to the Beach once a week with the top down, and send pics!!!!!

Vetteman Jack

Here was a post made by forum member cds1 a couple of months ago (10/28/12) on this topic:

I posed the question of whether or not it's good to warm up an engine during winter storage to a General Motors Chief Engine Design Engineer (friend of family).

The question:


Looking for your $.02 on this. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to
occasionally fire up my Corvette over winter without taking it out for a drive.
It's on a trickle charger, so I'm not worried about the battery. I've read two
schools of thought regarding warm ups.

1. There's no reason to run an engine if the vehicle isn't going to be
driven. Doing so creates the opportunity for moisture to build up in the
drive train that won't be evaporated because the car won't be moving.

2. Warming up an engine is good because it prevents gaskets from drying out,
corrosion from forming, etc.


Here's the answer:


First of all, the oils used today and especially what you put in your
Corvette are outstanding at preventing corrosion and in combating the
effects of storage and intermittent use of the engine.

That said, I believe that running the engine of a stored vehicle at least a
couple times in the storage period is good for the engine. It exercises
everything and gets the oil stirred up and coating the upper valve gear
where it drains back from and thus you don't have to depend on the film
strength of the oil for months on end. One thing about this is that when
you start the engine and run it you have to let the whole system come up to
temperature. That means the oil has to get warm, warmer than you would be
happy to touch. You may have an oil temp gage on the Corvette, if so I'd let
everything get up to 150F or run for 20 minutes, whichever comes first.
What that does is make sure that the water vapor in the engine is driven off
and the exhaust system gets good and hot and nothing detrimental will
happen. If one starts the engine and runs it for only a couple of minutes
the chemistry of what goes on inside the engine and combustion chamber make
a fair amount of water. That water makes acid in the oil which the oil has
to neutralize (which it has additives to do so) and also condenses in the
exhaust system. Modern exhausts are aluminized or stainless so are pretty
impervious to this but the engine innards are somewhat vulnerable.

As far a gaskets and seals go, you always are in a race between the effects
of high temperature and long duration which tends to set elastomeric seals
(like O rings) and flat gaskets which like a little oil. Overall this kind
of temporary running to high enough temps to drive off the water vapor is
incidental to the life of gaskets and seals. One thing to do is to change
the antifreeze every couple or three years and replace it with the factory
recommended solution. I think some Corvettes use special coolants so do
what the owner’s manual says.

None of this has any material effect on any other part of the drive train.
The transmission is just fine what ever you do irrespective of manual or automatic.

One thing also to keep in mind is that only a very small fraction of people
with opinions on this sort of thing have any real background to understand
what is going on.

dkulsy

Thanks for the suggestions. The plan is New Years Day fire up the nasty Corsa Pace exhaust and rattle the neighbors for 30 minutes - will get the oil temp over 150. Now we go to plan B if the outside temp has dropped to 10 degrees or lower. That's my arbitrary limit for cranking the frozen engine...
Dave

DevilDog II

Let it sit unless you can bring the engine up to operating temperature to burn off condensation. My personal rule-of-thumb is to never start my car once I put it into storage.

FLZapped

Guy I worked with who used to live there said he had a place he went to every year. They sprayed some sort of tar pitch on his undercarriage to protect his car from that stuff.

Never said how he cleaned it off later, though....

Corvette_Ed

Yup. Running it for short periods of time will wear out the engine internals.

CPhelps

I've heard two schools of thought that make sense to me:

1. Leave it sit the entire time.
Reasoning: The oil coats everything in the engine with a microfilm of oil. When you start up, this film helps to lubricate as the car is starting before full oil flow is realized. After a long period of time of sitting (say ~2 weeks), the film can dissipate and also drain down. Therefore if you start ever 2 or 3 weeks, you are doing the "hard starts" with no oil film built up. If you wait until the end of winter, you are only doing one "hard start".

2. Start and let it heat up pretty often (maybe once a week?)
Reasoning: If you start it every so often to let the fluids move around before the oil film has a chance to drain off, you are preventing the "hard start" situation while also getting the benefit of letting the fluids circulate to prevent seal dry out, etc. Ideally you'd want to get the oil hot enough to burn off contaminants and moisture, though. Not sure how feasible it is to get oil temp over 212 degrees just sitting in place, as in my experience that usually requires somewhat high RPM, especially in colder weather.

I'm not sure if running periodically would be a good thing or a bad thing with respect to rodents being attracted to the car, though. If it's warm more often, will they be more likely to try to nest there after you've shut it off? I guess they like nesting in cars regardless, though.

Evil-Twin

Leave it sit !

donald4972

I was told by a friend a few years ago, a certified GM mechanic, that you run your engine until it reaches full operating temperature; then let it run at least 15 minutes more to burn off moisture and condensation.
Driving it back and forth, even if just in a garage spins the bearings, and is good for the car (he said also).

CCA Corvette Parts

or


Just leave it off...

Peace
Chip