I have a question for all you mechanics & anybody else who has an opinion. I work about 2-3 miles away. It's all street driving. How bad is this going to be for my truck down the road? I might be able to get a good non stop 1 mile drive in the morning at about 50mph if I take a long route. Otherwise, going home I probably could take the freeway & take the exit after mine & get about a 2-3 mile drive if there is no traffic, which there always seems to be.
Would should I do?

 

I heard that each time you start your engine, the time it takes for the oil pressure to build up, the damage done to the engine is equivalent to driving 100 miles. Hot or cold, I dont think it matters.

I have been seriously thinking of purchasing an oil accumilator, most commonly found on small aircraft and generators. These types if engines usually require reliability more than power. What the accumilator does when activated, prior to shutting off the engine, is store 2 quarts of oil in a sort of holding tank. When you go to start it the next day or whenever, you open the valve to unleash regular operating oil pressure for 2-3 seconds. Long enough to get the engine running and for it to generate oil pressure.

Keep in mind the generator engines run for 100,000 hours between teardowns, and not unheard of to run over 500,000 hours. It reduces uneeded wear and tear, that the automakers dont want you to do.

 

Take the short route or dont commute in the L.

With the longer route you would still start and kill the engine the same number of times, still drive mile 0 to 2... but then proceed to drive an extra mile or 2. This extra mile or 2 is incrementally more wear on the L.

 

doublepost

[This message has been edited by DreaminAboutL (edited 12-05-2000).]

 

The trouble with short trips is the the engine never reaches operating temp. The condensation and other liquid impurities in the oils never get burned off by reaching operating temperature. When your engine cools atmospheric changes cause water to condensate and settle in the transmission and the engine. Running at Temp gets the oils hot enough to revaporise the water back to the environment through the vents. Water building up is bad for a number of reasons..

If it were me I would wake up earlier once or twice a week and take a 10 mile or more road trip to work out the kinks built up all week. But then I dont need a reason to drive mine and I dont worry about how quickly I put miles on. I bought the truck to drive not to polish and admire from a distance

Doug


------------------
Picked up Silver 2000 Lightning 2/28/00!!
1st run 13.9 sec 1/4 !! Best Run 13.43
drbdkb@hotmail.com

My Web Site www.SVTLightnings.com

2000 Lightning, FMS 3.73 gears ( Expensive ), PSP 4 Way Chip ( Retired due to pinging ), PSP Intake, Valentine 1, Snuglid, Bedrug, Lighted Ford Logos, Superchip R9, and 3m Panther Black nickel tint, Clear corners., Boston Acoustics 5x7s and Components, Alpine v12 5 channel Amp and JL Sub.

 

I have to agree totally with Silver_2000_ I have rebuilt many engines. Most back to stock and a few hi-perfomance ones.

The ones that were driven for short distances most of their life, had the nastiest looking crankcases of all. What I mean by this is an incredible amount of sludge that looks like wheel bearing grease laying on top of the heads, etc.

My '89 S-10 that I bough from a good friend blew up on me two days after I bought it. Tore it down to find the dreaded sludge blocking the oil return passages. Oil pump starved and then caused catastrophic bearing failure and seizure. A crowbar on the flywheel wouldn't even spin it over.

This truck had been driven 2 miles back and forth to work for most of its life by his wife. Yes, they change the oil regularly too, but that's not enough. That concerned me when I bought it. Then the nightmare happened before I could clean the junk out.

------------------
Jim
Black '00
#1,757 of 4,966
Built 3/30/00 (a Thursday!)
Clear corners
J.L. Enhanced R9
J.L. Stage II Ram-Air
FMS oval T/B next
HP booster of my own
G-Tech 13.72 stock

 

So what would be the minimum amount of miles that our engine would need to do its thing?
Also, if I always took a long way home, i figure I can get 5 miles of freeway driving. Would that be enough? The morning would still be the same b/c of heavy traffic.

 

BayAreaLightning,

I bought a new '92 full size Chevy with a 350 and ran Mobil 1 synthetic almost immediately. I lived 4.5 miles from work at the time, but it was 55 mph all the way to work and it spent the night in a warm garage. After 50,000 miles it still ran great and the rocker arms were still shiny as new.

I don't know your circumstances, and I can't put a mileage on it. Just make sure the temp. gauge is at full operating temp. for at least a couple of minutes. And change the oil before 3,000 miles. Your situation is worse than the "severe duty" described in the owner's manual.

If nothing else, run it in 3rd gear (O/D off) to get the rpms up a little and build up heat if you don't have extra time to drive it farther. It's not like it will make it wear out a whole lot faster or the guys with the 4.10's would have ditched them by now. My opinion.

------------------
Jim
Black '00
#1,757 of 4,966
Built 3/30/00 (a Thursday!)
Clear corners
J.L. Enhanced R9
J.L. Stage II Ram-Air
FMS oval T/B next
HP booster of my own
G-Tech 13.72 stock

 

Thanks for the opinions everyone. I think I get it now. It's not just the miles, it's also a time factor in giving the engine enough time to get to the optimum temp before shutdown.

 

I don't have a lightning n=but I can say this: I live a little over 2 miles from my job and I have no problem with my truck at taking this drive. By the time I get work or home it's all warmed up and everything. But then again I live in Jersey so it takes about 10 -15 minutes to do that 2 mile drive with all the traffic.

------------------
black 97' x-cab 4x4, 5 speed 4.6, black westin nerf bars, pilot ground searchers, borla SS split rear exhaust, K&N genII, bosch +4 plugs, superchip, flexalite electric fan, v-tech oval side window covers, IAS shocks

premier 720, pioneer 6cd changer, 12 premier sub, premier componets, 2 soso amps

still to come: new spark plug wires, new rims and tires, maybe a supercharger eventually.