Multiyear Owners - What do you do to take care of your GT350?

[Tank]

For those of you who have owned your GT350 for more than a year, what measures do you take to:
1) Take care of, preserve and protect your GT350 and
2) Are there any idiosyncrasies you do for whatever reason you’d like to pass on to new owners?

I’ll start. Mine's not my daily and spends a lot of time in storage due to my location and road salting.

1) After reading in this forum of people complaining, much to their surprise, their engines have been 4 or more quarts low, I always check my oil before I first start it up for the day. Just to make sure there’s oil in there.

2) Also, at least a couple of guys have said their GT350s have died while they were just idling. I make it a point never to have my GT350 just idle for prolonged periods. The most is to close my garage door after taking it out.

3) I redline it at least once when I take her out. Just seems like the right thing to do.

4) I plug in the trickle charger if I’m
not going to start it for a day or longer.

5) I avoid salt like the plague and use Sottozeros for storage and cool weather driving early in the Spring and late in the Fall.

Let me know if there’s other questions to ask.

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[JAJ]

I do my best to ensure that there's a race track at one end or the other of every journey.

 

[Bluelightning]

Mine lives in the garage at all times when I'm not driving it. I check the oil every 500 miles. I don't let it warm up before I drive it, but I don't go above 3500 rpm until it's up to temp. As far as trickle chargers go, I have one, but have never used it, and my car will sometimes not get driven for a month at a time due to weather, etc... Still on the O.E battery from 2017.

 

[Trackaholic]

Nothing too special.

• Check the oil often.
• When I get in a press the clutch I like to wait for the exhaust valves to cycle before starting the car.
• Since I have to keep mine outside, I keep a plastic bin with an ultrasonic emitting lightbulb under the car to keep rats away (had them chew through parts of the engine wire harness, which luckily could be spliced without too much trouble). Not sure it does anything, but keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get rats in the engine bay again.
• Try to redline at least once or twice every trip (assuming the oil gets up to temp).

Currently have 43,000 miles. Doesn't get driven a whole lot these days due to COVID, but try to take it out once a week at least.

-T

 

[Carbide]

Nothing too special.

• Check the oil often.
• When I get in a press the clutch I like to wait for the exhaust valves to cycle before starting the car.
• Since I have to keep mine outside, I keep a plastic bin with an ultrasonic emitting lightbulb under the car to keep rats away (had them chew through parts of the engine wire harness, which luckily could be spliced without too much trouble). Not sure it does anything, but keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get rats in the engine bay again.
• Try to redline at least once or twice every trip (assuming the oil gets up to temp).

Currently have 43,000 miles. Doesn't get driven a whole lot these days due to COVID, but try to take it out once a week at least.

-T

Good to see someone not afraid to pound on the miles. Well done.

Nice thread. I will be interested in hearing tips as well.
I am just 120 miles into my GT350 journey. Snowing again right now, so more waiting.
I still need to bring mine back to the dealer for some unfortunate panel adjustments. Then it'll be going in for PPF and ceramic coating.

 

[honeybadger]

Kevin's step to maximum enjoyment of a GT350

Step 1: Shine it up good

Step 2: Load it in the trailer so it's nice and "garage kept" while traveling

Step 3: Unload it at the track

Step 4: Scare every living thing within 2 miles due to noise

Step 5: Bring home, change fluids, and clean from track day

Step 6: Rinse and repeat as often as possible

 

[PP0001]

For those of you who have owned your GT350 for more than a year, what measures do you take to:
1) Take care of, preserve and protect your GT350 and
2) Are there any idiosyncrasies you do for whatever reason you’d like to pass on to new owners?

I’ll start. Mine's not my daily and spends a lot of time in storage due to my location and road salting.

1) After reading in this forum of people complaining, much to their surprise, their engines have been 4 or more quarts low, I always check my oil before I first start it up for the day. Just to make sure there’s oil in there.

2) Also, at least a couple of guys have said their GT350s have died while they were just idling. I make it a point never to have my GT350 just idle for prolonged periods. The most is to close my garage door after taking it out.

3) I redline it at least once when I take her out. Just seems like the right thing to do.

4) I plug in the trickle charger if I’m
not going to start it for a day or longer.

5) I avoid salt like the plague and use Sottozeros for storage and cool weather driving early in the Spring and late in the Fall.

Let me know if there’s other questions to ask.

Great thread especially for fairly new or soon to be GT350/R owners.

Having owned numerous 2nd generation GT350/R's over the last 5 years here is a list of measures that I personally take with my cars.

1. Oil levels always checked on a regular basis.

2. Tire pressure is checked twice per month.

3. When not in use for more than a week I disconnect the battery and hook up a battery tender to each car. I am very anal about keeping the OEM Motorcraft battery for each car in tip top condition with this process keeping my batteries in great shape for many years.

4. After putting my car away after some spirited driving I always put a car cover over it once my car has cooled down but will not put a car cover on an extremely dirty car therefore will clean up a dirty car soon as possible.

5. When washing and detailing my cars I always employ the use of a Metrovac Master Blaster air dryer. I can't say enough how important it is for me to get rid of excess water or moisture in hidden and difficult to access areas on our vehicles.

6. Once I leave my neighborhood I always put my cars into "Sport Mode" as I cannot get enough of the aural sound from our FPC engines especially from ~4,500 RPM up to the 8,250 RPM redline.

7. I change my oil on a regular basis even if one of my vehicles does not get driven that much.

8. Prior to getting on it I keep an eye on my oil temperature and water temperature guages.

9. Being an old school guy my track days are over therefore I don't get involved with PPF but certainly enjoy and endorse a good ceramic wax. I have been a Griot's Garage product guy for quite some time but have recently come across a company called "International Aero Products" which was originally formulated for aircraft but I also find it great for my cars and still learning about their products and like what I see so far.

10. I found out early in my automotive life that getting on any high performance vehicle with cold tires is a recipe for disaster therefore I always warm up my tires before any spirited driving.

Those are my top 10 suggestions and hope that some of these items may be of help to some of you.

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