How "short" is a short drive?

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All of the goodies are here: the SSO oil and EaO filter and the Blackstone Lab Kit. I do have a question about one thing I am not sure if I should note or not.

I am curious about how short the drive can be to actually dilute the oil with fuel? Every now and then, I simply turn the car on, wait 30-60 seconds, then just move the car about 25-50 feet around the driveway and turn it off. I have done this maybe 10 or so times on the current 8.5 months with this same oil in the engine. Is this something that I should note on the oil sample sheet just in case?

Thanks.
 
basically think of it this way. what your doing now is just getting things barely off cool, well i dont even think that. what your doing can cause major fuel dillution and water dillution from condesation. what really needs to be done is take the car for a nice drive say twenty miles on the interstate turn around and drive back, this will help burn off any water or fuel in the oil. what you do now just puts more in, and no idling in place doesnt help. and really you should do this prior to changing the oil, this will give a more accurate reading, if not then yes explain in a note what you have been doing to help the guy at the test place.
 
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A "short drive" would be any that does not bring the engine up to normal operating temperature.
 
I define "short drive" as any engine operation during which 50% or more of the time is spent getting up to "normal" operating temperature as indicated by coolant temps. In other words, you need to spend more time driving fully warmed up than during the warmup phase to get out of the "short drive" mode. Just my arbitrary, totally unscientific opinion.
Joe
 
Originally Posted By: roushstage2
All of the goodies are here: the SSO oil and EaO filter and the Blackstone Lab Kit. I do have a question about one thing I am not sure if I should note or not.

I am curious about how short the drive can be to actually dilute the oil with fuel? Every now and then, I simply turn the car on, wait 30-60 seconds, then just move the car about 25-50 feet around the driveway and turn it off. I have done this maybe 10 or so times on the current 8.5 months with this same oil in the engine. Is this something that I should note on the oil sample sheet just in case?

Thanks.



The longest trip we typically make in a week (myself or the girlfriend) is to one of our parents' places. Total mileage: 7.
 
I think it's a factor of how much time elapses between drives too. The longer the sit, the further you need to go to get the oil contaminations expelled since they are cumulative.
 
Originally Posted By: Petrou
basically think of it this way. what your doing now is just getting things barely off cool, well i dont even think that. what your doing can cause major fuel dillution and water dillution from condesation. what really needs to be done is take the car for a nice drive say twenty miles on the interstate turn around and drive back, this will help burn off any water or fuel in the oil. what you do now just puts more in, and no idling in place doesnt help. and really you should do this prior to changing the oil, this will give a more accurate reading, if not then yes explain in a note what you have been doing to help the guy at the test place.

That's the thing though, do I really need to go out for a 20 miles drive everytime I simply want to move the car in the driveway? The engine is basically running for a minute, maybe two from a dead cold start. I know I need to drive it before I change the oil, especially for testing. I plan on taking it for a pretty decent drive when I go to change the oil for the testing.

Car is a 2002 Roush Mustang Stage 2
 
You are doing nothing bad here. If this was a daily occurance, such as driving to the mailbox everyday to pick up your mail, I would say you were wrecking your engine. But if you only do this on occasion you are causing no harm, especially if the drive following this is a nice 20-30 min cruise.
 
I have the same problem. I bought my Mach new in 2004 and have only put 7,000 miles on it since then. During the winter I really dont drive the car that much but I do need to move it out of the garage to work on other projects. Im also trying to keep the mileage as low as I can. I would recommend changing the the oil at least every 6 months because of the moisture and fuel dillution.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
You are doing nothing bad here. If this was a daily occurance, such as driving to the mailbox everyday to pick up your mail, I would say you were wrecking your engine. But if you only do this on occasion you are causing no harm, especially if the drive following this is a nice 20-30 min cruise.

Driving around isn't a problem. When I drive it, I drive it. I'm wondering about the 60 seconds I have the engine on say ~ once a month and then turn it off. This last oil change is probably the most it has been moved around like that. Usually it is under 2 car covers for awhile, then I go out and drive it and then back under it goes. Again, it is only on that long as I am just doing it to move the car around the driveway.
 
Originally Posted By: PT1
Short drive: div>



That's the way I understand it; a short drive is less than 10 miles. 10 miles or more is not a short drive.
 
I think I know exactly what the original poster is asking, as I've often wondered the same thing myself. I wonder if I start my engine and shut it off 30 seconds later, am I getting any condensation in the oil at all, or would I need to have run it a bit longer to do that? In cases where a car needs to be moved out of the way to get another car out of the garage for instance, and then you shut the engine off immediately.

I can see the problem with short drives where someone might drive one or two miles to work everyday and then the engine gets a little bit warm, but nowhere near hot enough to remove moisture efficiently. But with extremely short running time I'm thinking that perhaps the engine isn't even getting the oil hot enough to introduce all that much moisture to it.

This also then leads me to an interesting question which would probably help us figure all of this out: when do you end up getting the MOST moisture introduced into your oil, would it be during the initial warmup cycle of the engine, or does the moisture start to accumulate after you've shut the engine down and it's cooling off?
 
I have a similar situation. I live in a village where cars can't be parked on the street overnight. I have a 1 car driveway, with 3 vehicles on the property. I use my Aerostar to block in my E-150 to protect against it getting stolen, the Jeep is in the garage. Every morning I have to start the Aerostar, to park it in the street to get one of the other vehicles out. I have been doing this for 11 years now, at least 6 days a week. The Aerostar is approaching 170,000 miles, no problems.

The Aerostar sees a 40+ mile round trip totaling 30 minutes each way 4 days a week, so anything in the form of moisture or fuel in the oil is getting burnt off. I would think that 30 minute drive once a week on the highway would solve any potential problems. JMO
 
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