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Cold starts?

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I used to go through a whole routine of jacking the car off the ground, putting it on axle stands, taking out the spark plugs, squirting some engine oil in there, turning the engine over by hand, replacing the spark plugs losely, spraying WD40 over the chrome, dribbling 3-in-1 oil behind the wing beading and then making sure that I turned the engine by hand about once a month and depressed the clutch a few times.
However, recently with milder winters and the odd chance to take the car out when the salt has been washed off the roads, I do none of the above. Every two or three weeks I start the car up and make sure that the engine comes up to full temperature on the gauge. I put it in gear and drive it forwards and backwards a few feet to work the clutch and brakes.
I'm not really sure what is best, but if you are not going to run the car occasionally over the winter I would recommend going through my earlier procedures! The advantage of what I do now is that I can sometimes drive the car when the weather permits.
 
Good ideas Nick

I remember having my clutch fuse on my GT6, what a pain in the neck!


gt6.jpg
 
I thought starting a car and not allowing it to get to normal op temp (usually a drive of 10-15 miles (under load)) was counter productive. Engine sweats internally due to low temp contaminating oil etc and cold starts cause more wear on parts than anything the car does so you are giving it multiple cold starts.
When going overseas @ six months a whack the car would do just fine sitting in the garage.
The only thing I'd do is block the wheels, emergency brake off and have the wife periodically clutch/shift and pump brakes a bit. (fuel stabalizer too)
A car sitting over winter (unless outdoors in the weather) isn't going to fall apart as that's not 'long term storage'.
 
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