Winter options - Which is best for my car/engine?

[FreeLitres]

Hi all,

I am currently having (suffering?) my first winter as a TVR owner (Chim 500) and due to the weather, I have not driven my car since mid October.

On a previous thread, I asked about how to look after my car through winter and I decided that I will try and drive it during any dry winter weekends. The problem is I haven’t had any!

I currently have 2 options.

1) Just leave the car on the battery conditioner for another month or two and go for a drive in Jan/Feb when there is a dry day

or
2) Start her up on my driveway and idle/blip until the engine is nice and hot. Then park her back up in the garage for another month. It is just too icy for me to drive around today.

Which if these two options will be better for the car? Is idling without a drive out bad news for the engine? Would I be better leaving it cold for another few months?

Any advice appreciated.

[pete]

Definitely better to just leave it in the garage on the conditioner rather than starting it up and letting it idle. It will take way too long to warm up with no load on the engine at idle, and while that's happening you're inflicting all sorts of wear and tear on a cold engine with thick oil.

Pete

[nutsytvr]

pete said:

Definitely better to just leave it in the garage on the conditioner rather than starting it up and letting it idle. It will take way too long to warm up with no load on the engine at idle, and while that's happening you're inflicting all sorts of wear and tear on a cold engine with thick oil.

Pete

+1 Until two weeks ago mine had been on the conditioner since Classic Le Mans in July!! - Started first time, ran it for 50 or so miles to give it a good blast, and put it away again until weather better. Just warming it up in the drive can knacker the cats, amongst other things.

Nutsy TVR

[FreeLitres]

Thanks guys - I will keep her on charge until I get a dry day.

I hope I don't have to wait too long!!!!!

[finestjammy]

I've been wrestling with the same problem. I think it's a case of which is lesser of two evils, leave it for months or start it up every couple of weeks. I hadn't started mine for 5 weeks and was alarmed at how much steam was generated,lasted about 8 mins and that's from being stored in a (very lightly) heated garage.

Personally I now start mine every two weeks and move it backwards and forwards a few feet on the clucth and dab the brakes. I wait until it's fully warmed and then give it some some revs to get the oil surging before switching off.

[Mattt]

Mine's been unused for a few weeks now, so at the weekend I try to take it out the garage quickly, move it around a bit to make sure it's sat on different parts of the tyres.

It's on a trickle charger, so starts no problem anyway.

[GG33]

I have done a lot of research on this subject as I used to own an aircraft that had a very expensive to rebuild 9-ltr Continental engine.

The problem with leaving an engine standing over the winter even in a heated garage, is that the oil contains acids & hydrocarbons which are a by-product of the combustion process. These acids react with the condensate that forms inside a cold engine and form a highly corrosive substance which in addition to being corrosive, also helps the formation of rust on any untreated/unplated steel components, usually camshafts and con rods. These areas of rust are very undesirable for several reasons.

There are several ways to overcome these problems. The first is to make sure you change the engine oil before you lay the vehicle up (this removes many of the harmful deposits in the dirty oil) next, replace the plugs with special storage plugs, these contain silica gel crystals which provent moisture being formed inside the engine. You then need to make sure the oils seals dont dry out.

An alternative method is to run the engine every so often (I would not leave it longer than 14 days) but the engine should not be left idling (this can also cause damage) It needs to be run at normal operating temp for at least 30 mins to boil off the contaminants in the oil. Problem then is that as the engine cools again, the condensates come back.

I will have a look for some links that go into more details for those that are interested.

GG

Edited by GG33 on Tuesday 21st December 17:24

[Chris71]

This weather is increadibly frustrating isn't it? I don't mind driving an open car in the winter (in fact I rather like it on crisp misty mornings), but I draw the line at snow or recently salted roads. That, combined with the fact I've been abroad quite a lot recently means it's the best part of a month since my Chim went anywhere. In fact, having only bought it recently, I can count the total number of times I've driven it on my fingers.

Personally I'm going to wait for the snow to melt and then take it for a gentle run the first time I'm around in daylight. With trips away over Christmas and New Year and some big stuff happening at work in January that could well be the middle of next month. It's on an Accumate, but I'm just dreading something freezing or congealing and then it refusing to start when it comes out of hibernation.

It's going to be so much fun when the temperatures rise, the roads thaw out and the sun returns. I also have plans for a few upgrades while it's partially out of action over the next few months that should transform the driving experience. Absolutely can't wait for spring.