How long, is to long. Oiling question

[WesChapman]

How long is considered to long for an sv engine to sit un-rotated?

My Scout runs fine, but sits a lot. She often sits for 4-6 months without being turned over. Should I be making an effort to run her up to temp more often?

 

[Michael Mayben]

how long is considered to long for an sv engine to sit un-rotated?

My Scout runs fine, but sits a lot. She often sits for 4-6 months without being turned over. Should I be making an effort to run her up to temp more often?

This question can't be answered! But your issue is also very common. We have no way of knowing how various oils might maintain any sort of film between the bearing and journal. The oil film maintains some corrosion/stiction protection, the oil wedge creates the actual lubrication cushion between the two components upon initial rotation.

Maybe someone wants to do a seat-of-the-pants test for this situation in the long term??

I consider minimum run time for any engine to get the oil fully up to temp and create conditions where the moisture accumulated in the oil can be "cooked" off, to be 45 minutes to one hour if running at an slightly elevated idle.

 

[WesChapman]

Thanks. Guess I'll be a test mule. I had the pan off last fall, and all was clean. Have to drop it again to re-fix something because I never seem to research before starting a repair....
If there's bearing material in the pan, then I'll know my current habits are detrimental to cam bearings.

 

[Scoutboy74]

Mm will correct me if I'm wrong on this, but generally the bearings don't just fail all of a sudden with no warning. What you really want to keep your eyes peeled for is grey sludge residue in the oil pan. That stuff is the babbit layer or laminate coating if you prefer, on the outer wear surface of the cam bearings. When you start seeing that stuff in the bottom of the pan, it means one or more of your bearings is headed south. It just progresses from there with possible eratic oil pressure and increased valve train noise, to the point that the bearing actually does crumble and then you'll see kibble in the pan.

 

[Michael Mayben]

mm will correct me if I'm wrong on this, but generally the bearings don't just fail all of a sudden with no warning. What you really want to keep your eyes peeled for is grey sludge residue in the oil pan. That stuff is the babbit layer or laminate coating if you prefer, on the outer wear surface of the cam bearings. When you start seeing that stuff in the bottom of the pan, it means one or more of your bearings is headed south. It just progresses from there with possible eratic oil pressure and increased valve train noise, to the point that the bearing actually does crumble and then you'll see kibble in the pan.

correct!!!