spring start up

every spring I struggle with this dillema.........its been sitting since Nov and not started.......batt has been on trickle all winter.....fluids were fresh before hibernation.

what do you do?

I start mine every so often, in theory to avoid the dry cylinder concern.

You could disconnect the ignition coils and turn it over a few times to get oil to the cylinders, but of course you are still cranking it on dry cylinders just not with the same load as if it were running.

If you are really concerned, you could plug the spark plugs to put oil in each cylinder (and be ready for the oil smoke on start up.

In hindsight you could do what I used to do with my boat motor before winter, that is misting it with marvel mystery oil.

Just my unsophisticated thoughts

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net;4022 wrote: I start mine every so often, in theory to avoid the dry cylinder concern.

You could disconnect the ignition coils and turn it over a few times to get oil to the cylinders, but of course you are still cranking it on dry cylinders just not with the same load as if it were running.

If you are really concerned, you could plug the spark plugs to put oil in each cylinder (and be ready for the oil smoke on start up.

In hindsight you could do what I used to do with my boat motor before winter, that is misting it with marvel mystery oil.

Just my unsophisticated thoughts

thx stan...........I used to fog my motorcycle engines before storage but was led to believe that with modern synthetic oil technology that wasn't necessary.

I'd just start the damn thing! My cars have sat around during our long summers for that long... I just don't let it bother me to much... My R/V sometimes sits for a year at a time w/o being started...never ran great though, so you wouldn't even notice if something was wrong! LOL!

With a stock engine Malcolm I do not think it is as critical to worry.

But

The cylinders, mains, rods and cam journals will not have an abundance of oil on them.
My main concern would be the bearings and not the cylinder.

Not the cylinders because;
remember when you had it apart with the head off and you would wipe the cylinder clean, then roll the crank to wipe the next cylinders, then roll it and the 1st cylinders had a oil streak that had been stored in the ring lands.
Thats why
There is lots of oil stored in the ring lands that will oil the walls as soon as the pistons move.

On a race engine or one of critical design like ours (full aluminum)
I would clamp the T-belt to the cams, loosen the tensioner, remove the oil pump nut and gear
(careful to maintain belt position and maybe C-clamp to crank gear as well)
then I install the nut and use my heavy duty snap-on air ratchet (not a gun) to prime the pump.

It started, died, I fixed it and its purring.

I did put a little oil in the cylinders and pulled the fuel pump fuse to spin it over without the engine firing. Put the fuse back and it started like I parked it yesterday........then it died as in quit like the key was turned off.

Tried a few things before I thought of the battery terminals and yes one side of the positive was loose.....quick tighten and alls good

Now if the snow would just melt