Whats the best way to start your Mustang after Winter storage?

[Strokerswild]

Holy overthinking, Batman.

Push button, start car. It will have near instant, full oil pressure as soon as it fires.

It's worked for my '15 for almost nine years...

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[PoCoBob]

Normally I like to start my car and move it out of the garage and let it warm up a bit in the driveway. But if it's sat for a couple weeks the transmission (A10) won't go into gear right away. I assume the oil in the torque converter has drained back into the pan. So if it's more than a week I let it idle for a minute before I put it in gear, letting the pump fill the torque converter up.

 

[markayash]

lake Speed JR did a good video on storing your car in the winter.. I don't store mine but was interesting..
2 take always were change the oil before storing it because it has gas in it and never crank it until ready to drive it

 

[Balr14]

Of all the cars I've owned, my Mustang GT required the least attention when storing it for extended periods of time. I check tire pressure. start it up and let it idle for 30 seconds. With modern synthetic oil and engine systems, there just isn't much to worry about.

 

[ORRadtech]

I believe if you put the accelerator to the floor while clutch in to start, it'll crank without firing. Some like to do this (couldn't hurt, right?) before actually starting the car, but I don't think it's really necessary

Edit: here's a thread on this for reference - https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/car-been-sitting-for-months-in-storage-prime-that-oil-system-before-firing-it-up.157595/#:~:text=So if your car has,gas pedal to the floor.

I've never understood the reasoning behind that.
It takes 15 to 30 seconds cranking an engine with the starter to build oil pressure. In that time the engine has turned roughly 100 revolutions. How can that be good for anything? If you just start the car you have oil pressure in 5 seconds or less.
The accelerator to the floor is meant to clear a flooded condition, not to distribute oil.

Just more overthinking...

 

[Zooks527]

There's a helpful tip I know. Before you start the car, it might be good to turn the engine a bit without actually starting it. This helps spread the oil around inside.

If you spin it on the starter for a bit, you circulate oil up to the top of the engine to pre-prime the wetted parts before you spin it at speed.

I believe if you put the accelerator to the floor while clutch in to start, it'll crank without firing.

Correct, at least as it applies to my 2019.

• Floor it and hold the pedal to the floor
• Spin for 10 seconds with Start button
• Take finger off the Start button
• Take foot off gas pedal
• Start normally.

 

[Zooks527]

I've never understood the reasoning behind that.
It takes 15 to 30 seconds cranking an engine with the starter to build oil pressure. In that time the engine has turned roughly 100 revolutions. How can that be good for anything? If you just start the car you have oil pressure in 5 seconds or less.

5 seconds at 3000 RPM is 250 revolutions (under load on the pistons), against 100 with no load. It also takes the oil a fixed amount of time to flow down, so there are fewer revolutions of the engine during that flow time.

Spinning an engine with the ignition off after long term storage has been recommended for ages. YMMV.

The accelerator to the floor is meant to clear a flooded condition, not to distribute oil.

It certainly was part of the reason back in the carburetor days. How you would even get it flood now with FI is a bit of a question.

 

[Tucker80]

Wheel blocks - crap, I knew I forgot something! Why isn’t my car moving???

if you try hard enough you can go right over them... So I've heard...

 

[ORRadtech]

5 seconds at 3000 RPM is 250 revolutions (under load on the pistons), against 100 with no load. It also takes the oil a fixed amount of time to flow down, so there are fewer revolutions of the engine during that flow time.

Spinning an engine with the ignition off after long term storage has been recommended for ages.

3000 rpm? What engine idles at 3000 tpm?
Mine idles cold at around 1200 rpm and warm at around 750 rpm. I start my car and have oil pressure in 5 seconds, that's 100 revolutions.
A starter turns an engine (assuming a good battery) at around 200 rpm. There's no way you're going to convince me that turning that slowly is going to move enough oil to matter a bit.
Lots of things have been recommended for ages but that doesn't mean they are still relevant.
We're going to have to agree to disagree...

 

[Zooks527]

3000 rpm? What engine idles at 3000 tpm?

I didn't say it idles there, but it certainly fires far faster than 1250.

A starter turns an engine (assuming a good battery) at around 200 rpm. There's no way you're going to convince me that turning that slowly is going to move enough oil to matter a bit.

I don't recall caring if you're convinced. People rationalize their way to suboptimal decisions all the time. Gear pumps work well even at low speeds. YMMV.

We're going to have to agree to disagree...

Well, as I said, I don't particularly care. It's more you disagreeing with a pretty fair number of people who work with engines that haven't run for extended periods or time.

Again, YMMV.

 

[TonyNJ]

Yea, hold the pedal down and crank it to get the oil primed. That's about it.

 

[RazzaRossa]

Would not your oil pump be spinning much faster when the engine cranks? Oil pump gear ratios and such. So it would pressurize pretty fast.

 

[C-WOODS-70]

After rebuilding two 289's in my old cars and before starting the engine for the first time I primed the engines with an electric drill and 1/4" socket on the distributor shaft that spins the oil pump. With the valve covers off the oil can be seen coming out of the top of the push rods, when oil is spotted in all eight of them, the engine is primed.
I guess my point is that if an electric drill (spinning slowly) can move oil thru out the entire engine, then I would think the starter would move oil even better.

 

[Bullittproof]

I am a first year [6M GT] owner as is Edgemere, in fact, I stored mine the same way. I read down through the responses, I generally live by ‘better safe than sorry’…reading the various comments covering a range of options it occurred to me that motor vehicles sit on a dealer’s lot sometimes longer than the 4-5 months that we store our cars. Granted the dealer has no ‘skin in the game’ other than having to perform warranty work … maybe we are overthinking this but I’d like to hear some solid ideas and then decide, thank you.

 

[Zooks527]

Would not your oil pump be spinning much faster when the engine cranks? Oil pump gear ratios and such. So it would pressurize pretty fast.

It will pressurize it faster, but with a positive displacement gear pump the number of revolutions to get the oil to the top is likely quite similar, After that, there's a finite amount of time it takes the oil to flow down after being pumped up to the top of the engine that's unrelated to how fast the pump is spinning. Turning the engine slowly while waiting for it to flow down wets more surfaces in fewer revolutions.

Now, the hard core way is to pull the plugs, add either diesel or penetrating oil, wait, then spin it without the plugs to wet the cylinder walls and clear the oil from the cylinders, but that's more for engines that may have sat for a year or more.

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