[DeTomaso] Why is it hard to start cars that have been sitting for months?

michael@michaelshortt.com michaelsavga at gmail.com
Wed Jan 12 14:20:16 EST 2011


Does it fail to start at the same time of the month, every month?

;-)

Just say'n

Michael




On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com>wrote:

> If you smell unburnt fuel, then it has to be an ignition problem.
>
> I never have this problem, I flip the key, listen for the fuel pump to
> build pressure, may take another off-on on the key, and when I engage
> the starter it immediately starts and purrs like it was five minutes
> since I switched it off.
> ***Sure - rub it in!! ;-)
>
> When I bought the car it usually only ran on 6 or 7 cylinders on a cold
> start, and also occasionally on idle. That turned out to be a mechanical
> issue with glazed bores and the plugs fouling with engine oil.
>
> What does you plugs look like?
> ***Um, I dunno. It's once again cold and damp, the car is covered again and
> probably won't come out for another 4 months :-( I'll look though.
>
> Should I look at the plugs after it has been sitting, or after starting it?
>
>
> Cheers,
> Thomas
>
> Charles McCall skrev 2011-01-12 18.10:
> > Hi all,
> >
> >
> >
> > Please note that this is not a problem, it is curiosity more than
> anything
> > else.
> >
> >
> >
> > Last weekend it was unseasonably warm. It had rained the entire previous
> > week, washing the salt away. My wife commented that we were out of sherry
> (I
> > don't drink the stuff but she likes it) so I decided to take the Pantera
> out
> > to buy her some sherry. The Spanish equivalent of two states away. It
> took
> > nearly 4 hours for me to get to the supermarket and back, mostly on
> deserted
> > backroads. Am I self-sacrificing husband or what? I don't know if she'll
> let
> > me go out by myself in the Pantera to go shopping anymore though.
> >
> >
> >
> > Anyway that's not the point. The car hadn't been started for probably 4
> > months, literally. During that time, all the fuel evaporated from the
> carb
> > and fuel line, so it took a while for the engine to fire. The battery was
> > fully charged (thanks Thomas!!) so turning the engine over was no
> problem.
> > All that I see as perfectly normal and understandable.
> >
> >
> >
> > When the engine fired, I think it was running on about 2.5 cylinders for
> the
> > first minute. Then another cylinder joined the party. Probably literally
> two
> > minutes after starting the engine, another cylinder began firing. The car
> > rocked and shook due to the imbalance, and I was filling the garage with
> > unburned fuel. I pulled out of the garage and the car was probably
> running
> > on 7 cylinders. It was possibly a good 4-5 minutes before it was running
> on
> > all 8.
> >
> >
> >
> > And then all was fine. With the engine warm and all the cobwebs out the
> > engine ran and felt perfect.
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm just curious as to what is happening mechanically in a cold engine
> that
> > hasn't been started for many months that prevents certain cylinders from
> > firing until good and warm. It's an intellectual exercise more than
> anything
> > else, although I do wonder if there is something that my engine is
> telling
> > me.
> >
> >
> >
> > Is this caused by a weak spark? Plugs that don't fire when cold? There
> are
> > only three possiblities, right? Lack of air, lack of fuel, or lack of
> spark.
> > Obviously if oxygen reaches one cylinder with a common carb and manifold,
> it
> > ought to reach all of them. Same with fuel I think. That only leaves
> sparks.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Does some kind of crud form over the spark plugs if they sit for months?
> > Does it all burn off if so? Is my engine telling me that I need to change
> my
> > plugs? Is this temperature related or time-related - by that I mean does
> the
> > engine smooth out because the plugs have warmed up to operating temp or
> > because they need x minutes of firing to burn off the crud?
> >
> >
> >
> > I've got an MSD 6AL in case anyone is curious.
> >
> >
> >
> > Again, this isn't a problem, I'm just wondering what's happening inside
> my
> > engine (or any engine for that matter) when it sits for months at a time.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> >
> > Charles McCall
> >
> > 1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
> >
> > "Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe"
> >
> >   <http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323>
> > http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323
> >
> >
> >
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-- 







Michael L. Shortt
Savannah, Georgia
www.michaelshortt.com
michael at michaelshortt.com
912-232-9390


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