What's the longest you've let your car sit unused?

6 Months.

 

Does it snow in Burbank? No reason why you can not back it onto the driveway and let it idle for 1/2 hour per week to have the juices flowing. Ideally a lap around the block would put the tires on a different section and eliminate flat spots from developing. I do not know if it is simply urban legend, but I've read of guys putting classic cars up on jack stands for the winter in areas like North Dakota and running the exhaust out via flex pipe to allow their cars to run indoors a few times a month. While you are at it, have it run in reverse like Ferris Bueller did!

 

It's actually easier to just shovel some snow and back the car into the driveway to run it.

 

About a month due to vacation. Sure did miss it.

 

Left my Alfa spider sitting for about two years. Charged the battery and she fired right up, ran great, no problem. I wouldn't recommend this for a Ferrari however as the potential damage to the injection system from runny old/gummy fuel through the system could be painfully expensive. Tires were fine (surprisingly) with no flat spots. My garage is heated and dry, so, the storage conditions were pretty good. I wouldn't expect as favorable an outcome where the storage environment includes cold or damp conditions.

 

one full week when i was in seattle

 

Looking back, I can't believe I did this. Not long after I got my Ferrari 360, I suffered a catastrophic knee injury in a fall down some stairs. I didn't have a trickle charger and I was worried about letting the car sit for several months while I recuperated...so I threw my son the keys every weekend and told him to take it for a joy ride. It's almost been a year now and he's still smiling!

 

Ouch! I can imagine an optimistic "accident" if my son ever reads your story

 

The 365 has been sitting since February, but my mechanic took it apart and rebuilt a lot of it in that time, so I'm not sure if that counts.

 

308 GTB carb. 10 months while building our new home. Stored in a dry garage with a trickle battery charger and tire pressure increased to 3 bar. Nothing else and no problems at all.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

I had to leave my Alfa spider in storage for about three years when I was on field site assignments. I had left it for a year in a dry garage prior to that and didn't have a problem (even with the battery -- not even a clock when it's off). But after three years in unheated storage in a coastal environment, I had to clean a lot of the electrical contacts. And I lost the seals in the clutch master cylinder.

 

Have left boxer for up to 14 months. Put in fresh oil, stabil in gas. Pumped tires to 45psi. Then put car in polybay with lots of dessicant, removed battery. 14 months later pulled car out of polybag, put battery in and drove off. Did thid for 9-14months at a stretch for 10 years while living abroad, never had a problem

 

Hello,

when I let my 308 sitting for 10 months I left my Alfa GTV 2000 ( Bertone ) for 10 months as well.
The Alfa made some problems, and funny or not, it was the clutch master AND slave cylinder.
BTW, do you talk about a 105-series ( 115 in the US ) spider ? And if so, does your car have fuel injection or Weber/Solex/Delorto-carbs ?
iirc; we had some conversation about our Alfas on the old FList LONG time ago, but I'm not sure anymore.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

Maybe two weeks for the Lotus. I drive it year round weather permitting. If the roads are dry, I'll take a spin at least once a week in the winter.

Ken

 

My TR used to sit in Florida for 3 months at a time with a trickle charger on and being idled for 20 mins every week no issues.

 

"No reason why you can not back it onto the driveway and let it idle for 1/2 hour per week to have the juices flowing. "
About 1 year after getting my 95 355 (9000 miles on the car) it developed a strange noise.I will give you the short story,the cam pulley bearings went bad on the car.They were rusted and the rust galled the shafts of the pulley gears.These gears and bearings are behind the front cover and the bearings are sealed.There was lots of rust inside the bearings.
The first owner was proud to talk about how low the miles were on the car and how he used to start the car every week and let it idle for 1/2 an hour or so.
I am not a fan of this practice the engine just will not get hot enough for the oil temp to get high enough to expel condensation,as a matter of fact this type of action PROMOTES internal condensation.
Start them get them warmed up and run them have fun drive the cars,they need it!
David

 

I hadn't run mine since Rita......needed new batteries last month......

I took one to the Sonic and got some fresh gas, but a diesel dually truck was behind the other one......from the looks of the beer bottles in the bed, it hadn't run in awhile....

I'm getting some battery tenders, and I always test the brakes thoroughly, when starting out from storage.

We have a Retro Rod event coming in February, I guess I'll fire it up for that!
A new Road Kings CD release party!

 

10 years on my 330 GT. Long story, but we bought a new house and the day we were to move the car, the starter brushes said that they had had enough and the starter wouldn't turn. Pushed the car to the new house (only 4 blocks). A fixer-upper house that took a lot of time, so the car sat. After a couple of years, I pulled the headers and starter and had it rebuilt. I drained the gas and put in a couple of gallons. Car started after re-install of the starter, but would only idle, not rev up. Tried a few time more over the years with the same result. Finally retired and had enough time to play with it.

Rebuilt the carbs presuming that they were clogged. No sign though. Blew out all fuel lines and replaced filters. Finally decided to check screen in tank and found that the fuel pickup tube was split and sucking mainly air. Enough fuel to start and idle, but not enough to rev up. Probably split for a while, but unless the tank got below 1/4 full, the split was covered.

The clutch was rusted to the flywheel (damp garage), but a week of keeping it depressed with a stick freed it up.

Brakes and cooling system needed rebuilding.

Short story, these are made to be driven regularly, enough to bring the engine, transmission and differential (if so equipped) oil up to operating temperature. The best low mileage Ferrari is one that's driven 40-50 miles once a month and had its fluids changed annually. That's ~500 miles a year. If the odometer doesn't have that kind of mileage at a minimum, you're in for trouble.

Regards, Kerry

 

Six+ months for a cooling system/radiator overhaul. The clock in the 308 ran the battery down, so I used a trickle charger to boost it. I was concerned about the gas, so I dumped a bottle of Techron into the gas tank to clean out the fuel system. It took awhile to start - fuel system pressure needed to be 'built up' by letting the fuel pump run awhile before attempting to turn the key. Once I got it started and idled for a few minutes, things ran fine. I've found that these cars run best when they're turned over and driven at least once every two/three weeks.

 

3 years with no starting, no flushing, no nuthin, didn't even disconnect battery! It was my 308 GT4 that sat while I lived in England.

When I came back home I put a new battery in it, pulled the coil wires out and turned it over slowly for a few minutes, and then started it up. A little smoke, and belt noise and then no issues. I then proceeded to drive it 650 miles to my new home.

Of course this is the car that has 90,000 miles on it and has never had new belts, new plugs or points, etc changed. I change oil and that is it! And the only thing that ever broke on the car was a water heater hose about one mile from home. I drove it slowly to the house while the temp came close to the "red". Never hurt the car. I actually think it ran better after that incident.

Never had a more bulletproof car!!

 

Most for me is about 3 months. Started it up and fired up fine. I expected the battery to be dead but started without a hitch. I warmed it up a little before driving, and for the first 5 minutes it was a little rough. But since then its been AOK.

 

It did.

Some two-stroke tuners deliberately run the engines hot enough to ‘seize’ them during the tuning process. It truth the engines don’t quite seize, they get so hot the piston rings expand to fill the bores, at which point they generate so much friction the engine stops running. (When you really seize an engine metal starts to melt and the bores and the piston rings become welded together, sometimes briefly, which causes scarring, sometimes permanently which wrecks everything).

What happened to you was the tuner’s dream. Once the rings wear into the bore perfectly they match each other and the net amount of friction is reduced, giving you a higher idle and, obviously, more power. You are a lucky man.


I’ve parked cars for years, and had them happily start without problems. You’re right to remove the coil wires at first - if you don’t and the car fires up immediately when the engine cranks over the cam bearings are often starved of oil. You end up with a top end rattle that won’t go away without a lot of money being thrown at it.

The problem I’ve had with storing older Ferraris or Lamborghinis is fuel hose disintegrate, and that’s about it.

There was an old Jag with Webbers that I used to store in a seaside town, and that always had the clutch weld itself to the flywheel. I employed a trick that a lot of English garages used after WW II when people brought their cars back on the road. If you don’t have days for oil to free the clutch then you can jack up the back of the car, put it on stands (it needs to be REALLY stable), start it in top gear, and then with the wheels whirring away at a good rate of knots, put in the clutch, and hammer on the brakes. With the motor fighting the brakes the weakest link will snap - and that’s the rusting join between the clutch and the flywheel. It isn’t very sophisticated, but it works!

The only time I put a car on jack stands is if it is on wire wheels, and then I always put the stands under the hubs. Why? I've found that the wheel bearings don't mind the weight, but the shock absorbers don't like remaining in full droop for long periods of time. If the shock rod gets some rust on it, the shock is usually knackered the first time the rod is pushed back into the body, which is to say the second you drop the car off the stands.

As a rule of thumb tires lose about 1 lb. of air a month, until they get to about 8 lb., at which time the shrinkage slows down.


The weirdest problem I ever had, in terms of starting a stored car, happened just outside of Monaco. I bought a Fiat 500 Vignali (it looks like a Noddy car) off a girl who had gone to N.Y. and left the car with her mother. The mother was nuts. There was a fence that ran through the middle of the house and continued right through the garden. Dogs were on one side, cats on the other, and we’re really talking dogs and cats here, not just one or two examples of each. The car was on the cat side, and two felines were living in the engine compartment and had since they were born. The car had been parked up on blocks with the hand brake on, so the rear shoes were welded to the drums. On top of that the mother was thinking that the cats should be let keep their ‘play house’ so I had to whip off the wheels, hammer back the shoes and get that sucker out of there before the deal was off. Thank God the house had a steep drive! I coasted out of there on almost flat tires, covered in cat scratches. Now, twenty five years later, the car is still in use - as Santa’s slay, delivering presents to kids.

 

115 - Spica, "49 states" (non-cat for everywhere but Calif) version. Still has original (points) ignition ... so far.

 

The car sits mid December to mid March every year so far.

And every year it gets taken apart and worked on during that time, then stored in a heated area with a trickle charger.

Not a problem so far, of course, it does have a very good mechanic baby sitting it, and it gets a once over before getting run in the spring.

DM