Priming Motor that sat for 6 months. Did I screw up?

[Rocket254]

I have a 2009 Dodge Viper that unfortunately had been parked in the garage for about 6 months. Before the first crank, I decided to go ahead and swap out plugs and wires since they were overdue. With the plugs out, my plan was to connect to to a charger, and turn over the motor until my (non dummy light) pressure gauge built pressure up near operating level.

Over two sessions of about 15 seconds each separated by some time to let the starter cool, I was able to build pressure up to about 75 psi. However, I forgot to pull the fuel pump relay. By the end of the second crank, I could smell a faint amount of fuel from the driver's seat with the door open, hood up and I immediately stopped.

Later that day, I installed the plugs and took the car on a nice drive to get everything good and hot. No issues at all.

So now, my overthinking self has been, well.. overthinking what I did. What are the odds I washed down the cylinder walls and possibly scored or removed the crosshatching? I'm not sure how easily the oil film is washed off the walls and I figure any real excess of fuel would have been pushed out of the plug hole on the up strokes. Additionally, as I'm building pressure, wouldn't the film be restored on the walls by the crank sloshing oil everywhere as the piston rings move up to TDC?

Either way, I did an oil change before driving it again to get rid of any fuel diluted oil and can't at least perceive any issues. I just need an expert to tell me that I've not done any damage here.

Thanks.

 

[Steve-Indy]

You may get dozens of answers here...some factual, some fanciful, and everything in between.

Today's quality full synthetic oils offer a lot of protection by cling to metal parts for a long time.

Since I live in a place where winter Viper driving is not a good idea, our Vipers routinely sit for 5-6 months without being started and they have suffered no issues.. They also show no wear on oil analysis. When I do start any Viper, I keep the rpm low for a "parade lap or two" in the neighborhood while coolant and oil temperature come up.. After gently accelerating out to the main road, and after oil temp 180+, I will start to use higher ram's (2500-3500) as appropriate. Even if I am going nowhere, I will still put 5-10 more miles on the car before parking it.

My guess is that your Viper will be fine. You can always send routine oil samples to Blackstone to monitor engine's status.

 

[Old School]

If an engine was damaged every time it wouldn’t start because of an ignition problem there would be a huge amount of damaged engines out there, not just Viper . You’ll be fine.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Rocket, if Old School says "you'll be fine" ...YOU WILL BE FINE !!

 

[GTS Dean]

FYI - if you are cranking to prime, or for compression check, I think there is a "clear flood" routine that will run automatically if you hold the throttle wide open when cranking. It kills the injector pulses and works like a flooded carb rescue routine.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

FYI - if you are cranking to prime, or for compression check, I think there is a "clear flood" routine that will run automatically if you hold the throttle wide open when cranking. It kills the injector pulses and works like a flooded carb rescue routine.

Yes. That is built into all the manufacturers ecu/pcm firmware and has been for decades.

 

[daveg]

Overthinking it, drive it.

 

[kmagnuss]

You're fine.

 

[Dyno Dave]

It's fine. Drive it!

 

[steve e]

save your starter motor, cranking the starter to build oil pressure is a waste of time and ******* your starter, just start the car and let it idle you will have immediate oil pressure, your car will be fine you did no damage.