Question about car that's been sitting 5 years.

Joined
Dec 30, 2006
Messages
29,558
Getting ready to take my 300ZX to a friend's body shop for him to fix for me. It's been sitting for 5 years since it got hit. It's got QSUD 10W30 in it that's (of course) 5 years old. Will it cause any harm to the engine if I start it up just long enough to drive it up on ramps to give it a fresh oil change before I drive it to his shop?
 
Getting ready to take my 300ZX to a friend's body shop for him to fix for me. It's been sitting for 5 years since it got hit. It's got QSUD 10W30 in it that's (of course) 5 years old. Will it cause any harm to the engine if I start it up just long enough to drive it up on ramps to give it a fresh oil change before I drive it to his shop?
No, the oil is probably just fine. How many miles are on the oil, do you recall?
 
Sitting in a building for 5 years or sitting outside for 5 years?

Inside a building...I'd lean towards changing it. Sitting outside, I'd definitely be changing it.
 
How long was the oil run prior to being parked? If it was close to new then maybe I would run it. If the oil was half used up and sat for 5 years with gas and carbon in it - I am not sure I would want anything that settled out back into the oil pump personally. I honestly doubt that would be a problem, but do you really wish to find out.

If it were my only way then I would be tempted, but if I had a jack I would go that route I think.

Personally I would also pull the spark plugs out, squirt a tiny bit of oil in each cylinder and turn it over by hand also before I tried to fire it.
 
I know prices are up, but I would change it out with fresh oil. Heck, I might even use an Ester Base Oil to help clean sludge out. Not sure if it’s really needed but why not. 😇
 
Last edited:
Back
Top