Guys,
Leaving your engine running while running into the store isn't likely to
make your engine last any longer.
BUT....
Most engine wear DOES occur at startup not because the oil "runs off" of
the bearings, but because without oil pressure, there is no hydrostatic
wave to support the bearings. As many of you know, bearing material is
VERY heat sensitive, and if they bearings rub, they heat.
At the risk of sounding rhadamanthine, I would forget all the wierd
theories of why engines wear, and buy one of the small electric oil pumps,
sold by stores such as Summit Racing, to pre-pressurize your oil system.
No more zero OP starts= less wear on the engine.
Regards,
Ray At 04:23 AM 11/29/97 -0500, Trevor Boicey wrote:
>Peter Landy wrote:
>> I agree that most of the wear occurs during engine startups. During
>> shopping or other stop'n'go errands I leave the car running
>
> I don't think that makes sense.
>
> The wear occurs at startup because the engine isn't
>lubricated. All the sitting has let the oil run off the
>cylinder walls and out of the bearings.
>
> If you are only stopped for a few minutes, the oil doesn't
>run anywhere, and the starting is not particularily harmful.
>
> I'd be willing to bet that the thousands of extra revs would
>do a lot more wear from all that needless idling.
>
>--
>Trevor Boicey
>Ottawa, Canada
>tboicey@brit.ca
>http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
>
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