Starting up after 4 months...getting the oil circulated
Discussion
Baby Blue said:
Take the DME relay out , turn the engine over on the key until u have a decent pressure reading then pop relay back in and fire up .............
Bingo
Possibly worth it after 4 months
Being not particularly au fait with the mechanicals of my GT3, where be the DME Relay?Bingo
Possibly worth it after 4 months
Tks
Bert
Doesnt quite achieve the same objective .............what u suggest, after a fair period of time, is flaming naked pistons by firing petrol while thers no oil protection ..........as someone else has mentioned, the oil when he starts after 3 months smoking out the exhaust, is whats slipped down and is no longer protecting the metal bits!
This is making me smile, just start it up its not an F1 car as long as you haven't dismantled the engine in the last 4 months and flushed it out not problem. The oil is pressure fed and the oil will still be there in all the pipework and oil ways and will instanly squirt out onto the bearings it doesn't evaporate away. No car post war has an oil that just splashes around and runs away.
If the pressure light doesn't go out instantly then you have a problem but you had a problem anyway turning it over with out firing ain't going to cure it.
What happens when you change the oil it doesn't all run out into the tray it stays in the oil ways and you just start it up, same thing. The oil fairies won't have stole it all in 16 weeks :-)
If the pressure light doesn't go out instantly then you have a problem but you had a problem anyway turning it over with out firing ain't going to cure it.
What happens when you change the oil it doesn't all run out into the tray it stays in the oil ways and you just start it up, same thing. The oil fairies won't have stole it all in 16 weeks :-)
The oil drains down In a whole lot less time that 4 months!. Where In the book does It say poor oil down the barrels..Disconnect the dme relay...turn the starter but disarm the Ignition etc etc. As long as you have oil In the motor It will lube It..just start the car off the throttle. You would have to do a lot of starter motor cranking to lube the top end. It will do It Itself..thats what they do!
If It makes you feel better just turn It off a couple of times after the motor has fired. Simples!
If It makes you feel better just turn It off a couple of times after the motor has fired. Simples!
But this is a 996 GT3 so its a dry sump has a header tank and two pumps one pumps the oil to the bearings the other pumps the oil back to the header. There is no oil floating around there certainly shouldn't be any in the cylinders. And the smoking is just a tiny amount thats passed the seals probably valve stems where its sat and will burn off.
If it was that dry you'd shag the crank and main bearings in a couple of revolutions fuel on or off. Probably worse trying to turn over the engine fuel off and ignition on.
Guess you'll drain the petrol too 12 week shelf life on that you know
Just my opinion If it were mine I'd just start it but its not so what ever you feel happiest with.
If it was that dry you'd shag the crank and main bearings in a couple of revolutions fuel on or off. Probably worse trying to turn over the engine fuel off and ignition on.
Guess you'll drain the petrol too 12 week shelf life on that you know
Just my opinion If it were mine I'd just start it but its not so what ever you feel happiest with.
Edited by TryHarder on Friday 11th September 18:49
TryHarder said:
But this is a 996 GT3 so its a dry sump has a header tank and two pumps one pumps the oil to the bearings the other pumps the oil back to the header. There is no oil floating around there certainly shouldn't be any in the cylinders. And the smoking is just a tiny amount thats passed the seals probably valve stems where its sat and will burn off.
If it was that dry you'd shag the crank and main bearings in a couple of revolutions fuel on or off. Probably worse trying to turn over the engine fuel off and ignition on.
Guess you'll drain the petrol too 12 week shelf life on that you know
Just my opinion If it were mine I'd just start it but its not so what ever you feel happiest with.
Perhaps you'd care to give that comment a bit of thought ? If it was that dry you'd shag the crank and main bearings in a couple of revolutions fuel on or off. Probably worse trying to turn over the engine fuel off and ignition on.
Guess you'll drain the petrol too 12 week shelf life on that you know
Just my opinion If it were mine I'd just start it but its not so what ever you feel happiest with.
Edited by TryHarder on Friday 11th September 18:49
Every firing stroke puts load into the main and big end bearings as ignition takes place within the cylinders. Remove the source of ignition (or the fuel) and you consequently remove a large amount of load from these bearings at a time when they may have less than optimum oil feed.
However, modern oils are engineered to cling to and lubricate the surfaces they're designed to protect long after the engine has been shut off.
If the OP is concerned about the effects of starting up after a long period of non use, removing the DME relay will allow the engine to turnover and build oil pressure without fuel soaking the plugs and bores in the process.
As someone who has tracked / sprinted etc quite a few cars in his time and NEVER lost an engine (bet it blows now...) I always crank my engines to bring the oil upto pressure. My track cars tend to sit around for a month or so at a time, so I will crank the motor up till I get some oil pressure, then turn the ign on and fire it up. Let it idle for 30 secs or so and then start the warm up process.
I also try and keep low fuel in, and fill it when needed
That said its a lot easier on a race car with a seperate ign / starter motor circuit.
I also try and keep low fuel in, and fill it when needed
That said its a lot easier on a race car with a seperate ign / starter motor circuit.
I have the same every year. I have a car I don't use throughout the winter. It goes away in October and comes out in April. I have the battery on a tender, it starts first time with no rattles etc as it's dry sumped anyway. Been doing it for years with no detrimental effects. Don't worry about it.
BertBert said:
Well all seems well. Car started on the button, oil pressure was immediate. It sounded like it would normally do after a 2 week break. Rattles for a fraction of a second. No smoke, nuffink 
Bert
I'm glad it all seemed to go OK. However, I don't think I'll be the first to suggest that a LOT more wear occurred during the fraction of a second rattle than in many many miles of running without rattling.Bert
I had a cheap old car once that would rattle the big ends for 5-10 seconds if started normally - I needed the car to get to work every day so to care for it I fitted an ignition cut out switch so I could crank the engine over to get pressure before letting it fire - it never rattled when I did that. Clearly this was a very worn car but cranking it must have extended the remaining life many many times over.
You may have no trouble just firing it up but if there's ANY rattles then you WILL have caused additional premature wear on components. If that means doing it repeatedly your engine life is reduced from 200,000 miles to 140,000 miles then you may never get to find out the damage you did reduced the engine life by 30%, but likewise it may reduce the life to just within your ownership window and you'll pick up the tab.
The fact that the OP asked for advice on this shows he believes in mechanical sympathy and wants to care for his car - I think we should support this and the advice to remove the DME was ideal.
It's funny that if someone asked "Do I need to warm my engine up before thrashing it?" I'm sure everyone would say "YES" rather than "No, that's rubbish, there's no need - I had one from new for 2 years and always ragged it from cold and it was never a problem" so I'm quite surprised by some of the responses to this thread.
Gratified to read ur post Goose, was beginning to feel like some kinda freak! After all the guy did ask a simple question the fuse was only a back up if he really cud nt find the DME ...............was told to do this by a very reputable engine builder when race car was left for 3/4 weeks
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