There are a number of considerations but they all add up to problems if you idle too much. The five main things that come to mind are combustion, oil pressure, battery charging, lubrication and moisture. I have been repairing and rebuilding engines for the past 35 years or so and can always tell engines that idle too much. At idle you don't get as complete of combustion, which leads to unburned fule washing the oil away from the cylinder walls and piston skirts, normally resulting in scoring and excessive wear. The pistons usually get a lot of buildup on them from excess idling (and incomplete combustion) as well - a common cause of pre-ignition. Oil pressure is low at idle and doesn't get to a lot of places it needs to be, causing wear. Generators don't charge well (or at all) at idle, so unless you have your battery on a maintenance charger you might be killing it. The moisture from normal condensation that occurs as the air is run through the engine collects in the oil pan and other oil wetted areas causing sludge and acidic buildup in the oil, and in the muffler causing it to rust from the inside out.
I have several old timers and try to run them every month or so but hate to take them out on wet, icy, or salted roads. If it gets to be two months and I haven't run them then I will start them up and run them at a high idle so that oil gets run through and keeps things lubed, keep the coolant mixed and so on. A bit more often might be better but I sure haven't had any problems. I also keep a low amperage trickle charger on the battery of each. I use the Schumacher 1 amp chargers because I've never had a problem with them and I like stuff that's made in the USA. Steve --- In [email protected], Kenneth Cluley <kenang...@...> wrote: > > Greetings All and Happy New Year > > Have a somewhat strange question. A friend of mine who owns quite a few vintage autos (none with a 6-banger) told me that he had read somewhere that it is not good to simply idle your old vehicle - you should always drive it. In fact, he said that idling it is worse for the engine than not starting it at all if you're not going to drive it - condensation or something. I have a '50 3100 that is not a daily driver but I try to get it out and drive it once a week or so. During the winter, however, there are weeks that I just idle it in the garage for 15 or 20 minutes. Any thoughts on whether idling a vehicle is bad for it? > > Thanks > > Ken > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Ole Chevy and GMC trucks rule! To unsubscribe, send an email (with no subject, no body, just the email), to: [email protected]! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/old-chevy-truck/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/old-chevy-truck/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
