Starting after storage

[LAT]

Is there a way to prime the oil pressure and delay the firing up of the motor. The R8 has been in heated storage for over 4 months.

With my Porsche cars I pull the DME relay and turn the motor over till there is oil pressure then replace the DME and start the motor knowing there is oil in all the critical areas before starting.

I would like to do the same with the R8.

[NVRL8R8]

Hmm, I have been storing cars/motorcycles for nearly 20 years now, and have never heard of having to do anything but start the vehicle up. All I do is use Stabil in the gas tank, along with the use of a battery tender. Never had any issues.
Is this really necessary?

[LAT]

Probably overkill but I've been told I'm a--l.

[JAMESY1010]

Did you also charge your battery with charger? Where or how do you get to the battery to charge it if you did?

[rmicroys]

Meh. Just fire the girl up, and drive. Just watch how fast the oil light goes out anyway - almost immediately. Same as NVRL8R8 - been storing my summer cars and bikes for over 20+ years and never did that at all. The only time I ever run the oil pump before starting the engine is on the racecar when I put in a new engine. I pull the distributor out (the distributor sits on top of the oil pump on my racecar's engine), run the pump and get the pressure up first, then reassemble and then fire it up. But that's a brand new engine starting it for the first time...

[LAT]

James; I use a Granite Digital charger and access the battery from under front hood. Light will go out with hood lowered and unlatched.

[rmicroys]

Like Levino says, the battery is very easy to access under the hood. Just slide that funny looking panel with the triangles in it sideways. The battery has easy to clip on terminals. I use a CTEK 3300 battery charger on it all winter. Never lets me down.

CTEK just launched an all new series of chargers for this year. They make some of the best charger/maintainers I've seen on the consumer market.

[KfabR8]

While the oil in the engine will migrate down, it won't completely leave the things it coats. There's always a slight film and that's all that's needed for protection.

Start 'er up, let the oil pressure come up (which as pointed out will happen very quickly) and then drive off.

Do as you'd normally do with a cold engine and don't run it hard at all until the oil gets into the operating temp range. - usually about 3 miles or so (the distance to the local Starbucks every morning.)

[rmicroys]

It takes a few more than 3 miles for my oil to get up to 90 deg C. Depends on where you live and what the ambient temp is too. Of course we all have an oil temp gauge, so it's rather easy to tell.

[SteveR]

I wondered about running the oil pump before first start, but everyone told me it wasn't needed. Yesterday I started it up after 4 months in storage and you would never know it was stored. It started right up with all guages normal. No flat spots on the tires either.

That never would have worked with my 69' Camaro. You would think everything would drain into the pan with today's thin oils and 4 months of stasis. Chalk it up to tight tolerances I guess.