My 1999 Carrera 4 has been stored since mid-December. I’m planning to fire it up in the next week or so. I’ve never stored a car for this long before.

Anything I should do before starting post storage?

Especially considering how prone these engines are to scoring. At this age, I have to assume that the piston skirt coating is weak or even in the beginning stages of pealing. I’m hoping to give the engine the best chance of avoiding scoring for another year or two before rebuilding.

 

I do the start(defined as engine fires) shut off-start shut off-start shut off until you see oil pressure on the gauge process. After that drive out of garage, keep under 3k rpm until water temp. up to @180 then drive it normal. Do NOT let it sit and idle to warm up...ever.

Prior to this check oil, water, tire pressures etc...

 

Thanks!

Do you pull the fuel pump relay and turn the engine over in cycles on the starter motor only until the oil pressure builds or do you start the engine and shut it off in cycles?

 

I've been told that using the starter will not build oil pressure enough to do any good.

 

My car was in the garage (not heated), with a battery maintainer plugged in all winter. I disconnected the batter tender and turned the key. It fired right up and made immediate oil pressure. It acted like I just started it the day before, not last November.

I wouldn't worry about too much.

 

Thanks!

I ended up just starting it. All seemed fine - made oil pressure immediately.

 

Agree. It’s why these cars start up and hit nearly 2,000 RPMs right away.

 

What is this nonsense about not letting the car idle up to temp? What is the reasoning behind that?

 

Lots of posts on this topic across all generations and models of Porsche, not to mention outside of Rennlist for many, many other cars brands and types. It’s even listed in many owners’ manuals....been documented and noted on CarTalk radio, Car & Driver, other publications...

The M96 especially, may lack lubrication on a particular bank of cylinders, as documented by Hartech...

Simply, is that engines are designed to run at an optimum temperature, so anything outside of that increases risk of failure and/or wear. More than 50% (up to 80%) of wear occurs at engine startup. Oil doesn’t protect the engine for the initial cold start. Oil at cold temp doesn’t flow well, doesn’t get to critical engine parts fast enough. Pressure is high when volume is low, but only at the head of the pump. Otherwise, pressure and volume are tiny, especially at the end of the channel - the chain tensioners for example, the piston jets, etc.

This is one reason (out of dozens) why a 996 with 600,000 kilometers on it still runs fine, but others at 30x less kilometers may need a rebuild already. There is also increased water accumulation in the oil, increase fuel dilution, and pollution due to cats not heating up fast like the car has been designed. Idling also wastes time.

 

Check out https://flat6innovations.com/

Jake Raby has a complete video series about how to diagnose, maintain, help prevent bore scoring and all the other issues that can plague our 996 engine's.

The idle to warm up runs the risk of excess fuel diluting crankcase oil. There are other effects as well, but that was the first to come to mind.

Jake knows these engines better than most experts, yet he claims not to be one. Most people heed his advice.

 

All good points -- thank you! Thankfully not something I do anyway, but good to know it's the right decision. Reminds me of people who idle their cars in the winter to get them warm. That never made much sense to me.

 

Of course, some idling might be worth all the downsides:

 

So funny - I just watched that yesterday... wondering what I would top out at at the end of the Thompson straight if I had an LS7 pushing me along.

Bonus, wouldn’t need to worry about the don’t let the car idle thing.

BYW - on topic, I just fired mine up after sitting 3 months, I did not overthink it.