low-use oil change intervals

[Larry Martin]

I called a tech down at Royal Purple about a year ago with some questions like this.  His advice on a standing engine was that a the oil would likely be OK (no running equals no air pumping which minimizes the introduction of moisture, gas, carbon, silicon, etc.) but the larger issue was restarting at the end of a prolonged period.  He said that after about six months most of the oil had drained away from just about everywhere and the restart would be largely "dry".  Since I was using an ester based oil (Motul). I wasn't overly worried about that since it tends to adhere to metal chemically.  I thought he was overstating it a bit but it made sense.  By the way, he wouldn't say that RP trans oil had or did not have sulfurous compounds, only that their Max-Gear (GL5 and 4) was what was recommended for the transaxle.  I feel pretty safe with that.  He also had they had specific specialty oil for laying up engines but it was a special item not offered
 in the consumer area but salable nevertheless.  After getting to "know" him a little I told him I had trouble always finding his product and if I could not what would he recommend.  Redline or Motul was the reply.

--- On Wed, 7/14/10, Tim Rogers <timprogers at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Tim Rogers <timprogers at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: low-use oil change intervals
To: jaretr1 at aol.com
Cc: se-r at se-r-list.org, davidpertuz at mindspring.com
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 9:08 AM

I've seen a lot of vintage cars where the intake and exhaust openings are covered once the car is parked to help keep said water vapor from getting in and condensing.
 
Tim Rogers


On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:55 PM, <jaretr1 at aol.com> wrote:


You probably wont hurt it.  Most of the collector car magazines and things i read recommend changing oil in cars at least once a year, regardless of mileage.  And when you do drive it, to run it at least 30 minutes to make sure any water is burnt out of the oil.  My last oil change on my SE-R might have been about 1k miles, but was over a year.  

 
Having said that, the biggest killer of a car from sitting is not dirty or old oil, its the sun wearing on anything and everything. So if the car is protected from the sun, having old oil probably is not going to hurt it.

 
My 91 SE-R sat for 2 months since I had driven it last and it cranked right up as it always does.
 
Jaret








-----Original Message-----
From: David Pertuz <davidpertuz at mindspring.com>

To: se-r at se-r-list.org
Sent: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 5:49 pm
Subject: low-use oil change intervals


My Fiat (yeah, I know, it's not an SE-R, but we like the list traffic, don't we) 
doesn't get driven more than about 1000 miles a year, so oil changes are based 
on time intervals rather than mileage. Or they would be if I didn't suck at 
getting stuff done when I should get it done. Right now it's got oil that 
doesn't have mroe than about 2k on it but it might be two years old now. I do, 
at least, practice proper warm-up and cool-down (it's a turbo) and make sure it 
has enough (it wouldn't be a Fiat if it didn't leak, after all). I've only 
driven it a few times so far this year - a couple of short drives in the city, 
and a trip out to the western burbs a couple of weeks ago to meet a friend. I 
want to drive it up a North Shore burb tomorrow night for a concert, but am 
angst-ridden about my non-oil-changing. I've got new oil (Shell Rotex or 
whatever that's called) and filter, but I have to track down a 12mm allen-head 
socket before I can do the job.

Question: just how bad of an old-Italian-car owner am I being? Do I suck 
completely, or only partly?

I'm probably really just looking for validation of what I want to do anyway, 
which is drive the car tomorrow. 

David
Chicago


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-- 
Tim


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