985plowboy
Poster Extraordinaire
I miss my Grandparents.
What a Wise Man Taught Me About Engines
- Thread starter ChicknPickn
- Start date
dougstrum
Friend of Leo's
Love my grandkids! Hope some day they'll remember something I taught them~
No, don't start your car everyday - unless you're going someplace everyday,
Every time you start a cold motor, you create more wear than one might experience otherwise, cruising for an hour.
If you can do a whole weeks worth of errands in one day, do it all that day. But when you're finished, drive out on the highway or up some hills and get some real heat in the motor. Get those accumulated fluids in the crankcase oil to burn off and get on out of there. Those fluids can turn Dino motor Oil into gelatin (or mayonnaise) and even lessen the effectiveness of synthetic motor oils.
I've got 7 cars. I'll rotate them out, using first one then the other. There's just no way I could even consider starting each every day. Three of them just so happen to have over 220,000 miles each and they're just as ready to go any day as the one with 43,000 miles. I suspect I might be doing this OK.
When I purchased my current home 16 years ago, the kitchen lights were left on. They were fluroescent tube lights and I have never turned them off in 16 years. The only time they have been off was about 5 days total during power outages, otherwise they have been on the entire time. After 3 years, it sort of became an experiment so I hate to turn them off now.
Ever notice that light bulbs don't blow out when they are on? The go out when you turn them on when weak enough. That voltage spike is what gets them. Let them run and the stress is even....sort of like highway mileage vs in town commuting with your car.
Amps fall into that category. My Grandfather use to say that everything goes to crap when it isn't being used. I have lived by that adage my entire life. Keep those amps exercised at least once every 2 weeks for an hour and they will outlast roaches.
An old diesel mechanic I know told me about that trick.
rz350
Friend of Leo's
I just drain all the fuel from the system including the float bowl and let it sit...
90+% of my equipment have plastic fuel tanks, which are just great.
I do regular maintenenance, change oil, plugs etc throughout the year.
I find if I start my equipment cold frequently in the winter just to exercise it, fuel tends to get into the oil by virtue of the rich mixure required to get it running getting past the piston rings.
The most important lesson I've learned is do not leave any Ethanol fuel in the system for any period of time, in fact, don't use Ethanol fuel at all if you can avoid it.
Second lesson fuel injection is your friend. i let my Acura sit for 3 years, added fresh fuel, primed the system and started it like it had been driven yesterday, this won't help with most small engines, athough some newer versions do have fuel injection.
90+% of my equipment have plastic fuel tanks, which are just great.
I do regular maintenenance, change oil, plugs etc throughout the year.
I find if I start my equipment cold frequently in the winter just to exercise it, fuel tends to get into the oil by virtue of the rich mixure required to get it running getting past the piston rings.
The most important lesson I've learned is do not leave any Ethanol fuel in the system for any period of time, in fact, don't use Ethanol fuel at all if you can avoid it.
Second lesson fuel injection is your friend. i let my Acura sit for 3 years, added fresh fuel, primed the system and started it like it had been driven yesterday, this won't help with most small engines, athough some newer versions do have fuel injection.
Engine Swap
Friend of Leo's
Engines always run best right before they blow. Same thing with amps.
rz350
Friend of Leo's
True, and when I hear the rods knocking at 10,000 RPM, I just grin and stay in the throttle....
Wound_Up
Tele-Holic
No, it is not. Not if you use it longer than over 1 winter, anyway.
At auto tech school, we replaced the entire fuel system on a Chrysler 300 Hemi prototype from Chrysler because of stabil. Everything. Fuel tank. Fuel pump. Every piece of fuel line. Injectors. Obviously the fuel filters. It was quite expensive. Stabil killed it all.
If you use it, change it yearly or sooner.
I've been a service tech professionally for about 12 years now. I've seen more than my fair share of engines, good and bad. Been working on cars for 25+ years.
eddiewagner
Poster Extraordinaire
We are coming to a point.
Had an old Transit diesel van where I worked back in the 70s. Never started in winter after it’d been standing a couple of days. Used to fire an ethanol aerosol into the air filter whilst turning into over on the starter motor. 1/2 dozen turns and, accompanied by some explosions and flames, it would start OK.
Duck Herder
Tele-Meister
Sure that it wasn't the ethanol?
I think my Wife likes blue. You see, she has a method when leaving in a car that is cold. Start it, give it 2 seconds to make sure you started it, then jam it into gear and take off. I have a Camry 2004 with 215,000, every cold start, it bellows blue smoke for the first minute. She like the new Camry Hybrid we have so she can just take off.
While adjusting the carburetor on diesel engines?
Refugee
Tele-Afflicted
"...Taught About Engines."
My old shop teacher told me that things that take liquid fuel, are called, "Engines." Things you plug into a socket are called, "Motors." Do not confuse the two.
Growing up in NW Indiana, sometimes we would get some really cold weather during winter. So cold, that you go to start your car in the morning to go to work. Doors are frozen shut. You the the hatchback to open, and crawl in that way. Engine won't even crank. Go and run a 100' extension cord and plug in 1500W hair dryer and aim it at the starter and wait about 20-30 minutes and then it'll crank right up.
My old shop teacher told me that things that take liquid fuel, are called, "Engines." Things you plug into a socket are called, "Motors." Do not confuse the two.
Growing up in NW Indiana, sometimes we would get some really cold weather during winter. So cold, that you go to start your car in the morning to go to work. Doors are frozen shut. You the the hatchback to open, and crawl in that way. Engine won't even crank. Go and run a 100' extension cord and plug in 1500W hair dryer and aim it at the starter and wait about 20-30 minutes and then it'll crank right up.
Probably not but what old Syd didn't know about engines probably wasn't worth knowing.
Gotcha.
I have a friend (I think he's about 31) who was a mechanic for several years, and he's now an Electrical Engineer. He has admitted a number of times that he doesn't know how a carburetor works.
They never mentioned them in his auto mechanic classes in college, and he never ran into them as a mechanic. Not until recently when he had to do some work on his dual-sport motorcycle did it come up.
mexicanyella
Friend of Leo's
I can see how this state of affairs would happen, and it still blows my mind...and reminds me that I’m 53, not 18.
Carburetors were pretty central to most of what I was interested in as an engine nerd kid, and were no big mysterious deal. But I’m old now and don’t realize it, and a lot of people younger than me and with more overall mechanical knowledge and experience than me may well have never seen a carburetor other than in pictures.
That’s weird to think about.
I've long thought one of the worst things you can do to a car is park it for the Winter months. I have a Fiat 124 Spider, rear wheel drive, and drive it 365 days a year in Colo Springs CO.
I would never store a car. If I can't / won't drive it year-round, I won't own it. I'd get a different car or get a different address haha
I would never store a car. If I can't / won't drive it year-round, I won't own it. I'd get a different car or get a different address haha
the awesome thing is... you know the difference between the phrase 'freeze your balls off' as hyperbole AND reality!
