On Thursday, 7 February 2019 19:13:57 UTC, wrote:
Jeff:

I think this entire discussion may be distilled to the following:

a) The first-stated purpose is to keep a battery charged on an otherwise idle vehicle.
b) A float charger/battery maintainer is not an option.
c) Actually driving the vehicle is to be avoided - could be for many good reasons from physical issues to insurance to registration and so forth.

What we know A:

a) Starting any fossil-fuel Internal Combustion engine produces a great deal of water as a product-of-combustion.
b) We do not want that water to remain in the engine. Which means:
c) We have to bring the engine up to a minimum operating temperature, and then maintain that temperature for some undefined period of time, but one that is sure to remove the water.
d) It is extremely likely that this water-removal requirement will exceed the keeping-the-battery-charged requirement in operating time.

What we know B:
a) 1987 was 32 years ago.
b) We have no direct knowledge of state of the vehicle in terms of maintenance - oil seals, gaskets, and so forth.
c) Older gaskets do like to be exercised against shrinkage and drying out..
d) The gentleman in the Hospital would probably want his very cooperative neighbor to err on the side of caution.

EVEN THOUGH 147.5 angels *can* dance on the head of a pin, running said vehicle for a minimum of 15 minutes (or until fully hot) at ~1,000 rpm at least every two weeks is probably adequate. Special circumstances may SHORTEN that time (2 weeks), but unlikely that the time would be lengthened by much - given 'What we know B'.

So, Tabby may obsess around the details - I know for sure he is highly frustrated when pepper gets into his fly-poop - but the actual reality on the ground won't change because of that obsession.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA


I've gone & chilled. No I'm not obsessed, it's just, what's the word, I'm seeing a long thread of groupthink.

A b) & c) are debateable. Whether B c) results in the need to run it every 2 weeks is at best unlikely.


NT