SP6 Cold Start

[GeminiJS]

I have left my Sagaris in my garage for a couple of weeks during the cold spell, of course on trickle charge. It crossed my mind at the weekend whether it would be beneficial to turn the engine over on the starter to get some oil circulating around the engine before the engine fires.

If any body has any views on this I would appreciate it. If it would be beneficial the next question is how do you stop it firing up without going to the bother of unplugging the leads.

Normally after it has been left in the garage I just start it up normally and it fires up immediately, then I run it for a few minutes at 1500 to 2000 RPM and never let it idle until the engine has warmed up for at least 5 minutes. Then I allow the oil temp to get to 60 before using too much of the load pedal. Still have the original untouched SP6 from new with 28,500 miles.

[Englishman]

Similar mileage Sag here. In all weather conditions (-8C last week) I just start up, take out of the garage, close the garage door and drive off, keeping to ~2500rpm until oil gets to 40C. Has worked for me on original engine since 2005.

[RedSpike66]

Mine lives outside, and I start it with no throttle at all, and after it's been running for about 10-15 secs, increase the revs to 1500rpm just for another 10-15 secs before drivinf off to get everything warm.....

Seen an engine started with the cam cover off once... before the engine fires, cams and followers are already being coated in oil, and within fractions of a second of it catching, there's a lot of oil about...

Don't worry too much - it's no different to any other car in respoect of starting. The warm up procedure is out of mechanical respect of the rather large hp and torque you have in a light car.

[ronspeedsix]

Speed six engines have lack of oil at the cam's. That's why you have to be careful when it's cold.
Later engines have better oil flow to the cam's. There are mod's which ad internal oil-piping at the cam-cover with oil spraying nozzles above every cam.


Ronald.

[Jasper Gilder]

When I met Al Melling last October he showed me an AJP6 which had semi exterior oil pipes to the head - reinstated internally for the 05 upgrade. I'm anal about mine until the oil is up to temp and never over 1500Rpm until it's about 20 degrees ( took a while the other day when it started at minus 14!)

[blueg33]

Would pulling the fuel pump fuse do the job?

I use an oil pre heater, plug in a couple of hours before I leave and the oil in the tank is at 28 degrees when I come to start the car, it drops back to about 15 once the engine is running but climbs back up quickly.