Bill Fisher

Car has been sitting in garage for weeks during a very cold spell, here. Is it OK to just start it up and let it idle for 15 minutes or so, then turn it off, but not take it out on the road for a drive (I don't want it on the heavily salted and brine treated roads in my area).
Thank you.

Nowhere Man

nope let it sit until your ready to drive for ten or so miles

CorvetteMikeB

Don't see any harm in doing this every week in your dry salt free garage.. Better to have moving lubricated parts then resting rusting parts.

dahogan

I was told or read the same here on the forum.

Nowhere Man

if you like moisture build up in your oil and exhaust have at it

dahogan

Not recommended for newer corvettes either.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...er-winter.html

MaineDoc

I have a 66 and a 2014 stored next to my wife's 1990 Miata in a heated garage. When they are put away for the winter they sit covered until they come out in the Spring. No winter starts. Same with my 2011 Ford E-450 RV. No starts until I'm ready to take them for their first run.

GTOguy

Nope. Better to let it sit until you can take it out and drive it ten-plus miles as stated. As a professional auto tech, I can tell you that starting up a car and running it in the garage/service bay for 15-20 minutes does a lot more harm than good. Moisture will build up in the crankcase and exhaust, causing acids to develop in the engine oil and rust to form elsewhere. Not to mention the added wear and tear of many cold starts of and engine that will never be driven on the road to burn off condensation and warm up all the key components of the vehicle.

Bluestripe67

I have the rope in hand and the limb is above me. Hang me if you want, but if all a person wants to do is circulate fluids, excluding anti-freeze, run the car for 10-15 seconds. The fluids will get splashed over everything. The engine temperture probably will not rise 15 degrees. OK, step right up. Dennis

MikeM

The experts have been saying for a long time, the most engine wear occurs during the first few seconds after start up.

If you burn a gallon of gas, you produce about a gallon of water. Some goes in the crankcase, some goes in the muffler. Some comes out and some doesn't.

Make sense?

I'm not sure what circulating the fluids does to benefit anything.

jim lockwood

Yep. Your engine is MUCH better off if you just let it sit until you can take the car for an extended drive.

Starting the engine and letting it run may make YOU feel good, but it does nothing good for the engine itself.

karkrafter

That is the very best way to wipe out a camshaft....[and foul the plugs and gas wash the rings...]

Let it sit.

Yellow6t7

Been reading this post with interest.
I need to move my Vette to get work done in my garage.
My plan is to just back my car off my lift and let it idle in the driveway for 15 minutes or so to get it warmed up, then turn it off while work is being done in the garage. Then restart and let it idle for bit before driving it back onto the lift. Cannot take it for a drive as roads are salted and sanded.
My other option is to leave it on the lift and roll the lift and car around in the garage. I don't want any of these garage guys working next my car. Things happen!
Reading these post gives me much concern. Do not want to damage the original motor. Should note outside temps are 10*F range. Is this a bad plan?

Nowhere Man

65GGvert

I hope I'm never to the point where I'm afraid to start my car to move it around. Or just to hear it run if I want to.

6T7L71CPE

Bad idea on the long term. I had my Dad start my TR6 regularly? occasionally? while I was stationed in Germany for two years. The first time I drove it after I got back the "new" Abarth mufflers I installed before I left disintegrated as I went down the road.

Yellow6t7

If you are reading some of these post by just starting your car you can wiping out the cam, building up moisture in the motor causing internal rusting, acids in the engine oil .......... all scary stuff!
That said, I'm just going to start my car when I NEED to. I would think a little oil moving around inside the motor could hurt.

SWCDuke

Let it sleep. Many studies over the years indicate that about 80 percent of wear over the life of a typical automotive engine occurs during cold start and warmup. So unless you want to drive it or have to start it to move, leave it alone.

Duke

dplotkin

Gentlemen:

Mike's comments are truth. For years I have been **** retentive over the subject of cold starts, many years ago insisting my wife drive her Maxima an additional 15 miles in the morning to get it to operating temperature. That was excessive being a fuel injected car that would ultimately be traded in and I've since tempered my neurosis in this area.

But when it comes to carbureted cars; to operate them from cold on short run times without bringing them to a sustained (20 min) full operating temperature is a bad idea as a habit, but won't kill anything if it must be done because a car for whatever reason must be moved. If you can't sleep without running your motor in the dead of winter either because you need to hear it purr to get to sleep (don't fall asleep in a running car!) or you fear rusting out your crankshaft, than by all means go ahead. If you do this sort of thing, which is complete nonsense, but so are many other obsessive-compulsive motivated rituals, than plan to change your oil in the spring.

Moisture in the crankcase causes sludge. If you ever looked inside a suburban station wagon motor from the 60's & 70's used for short trips and without frequent oil changes you would see what Mike's gallon of water does for your oil. But worse than that is the gas washing down the precious and tentative oil film on the cylinder walls to join the watery oil in the crankcase, caused by a closed choke and a cold intake condensing vaporized gasoline back to a liquid.

The inside of a properly operating engine stays coated with oil a long, long time, it does not need your help idling in a cold garage. In many cases these automobiles have been around longer than we've been worried about them, they will be fine.

Dan

emdoller