Yeow!! She don't like long idling periods!!

[Paul Workman]

Winter has pretty much ended regular forays in the Z for the winter season . But, I had to move it out of the garage several times over the past few weeks to use the space as a temporary woodworking shop. When I did so, I would let it idle for several minutes until it came up to operating temperature, and to top off the battery while it was at it. Apparently those periods of idling amount to a BIG MISTAKE.

I suppose I ran it that way 5-6 times over the last 3-4 weeks. The last time I noticed it was idling rough (once again), and "woofing" the accellerator resulted in a LOT of stumbling and such. So yesterday the temps stayed below freezing (read: no slush or mud) and I took my baby out to "blow the cobwebs out a bit.

Wow! On the first moderate spurt of accelleration it missed and sputtered and ran like a POS! This was a total contrast to how it ran the last time it was out for a sprint. Well, after several WOT/7000 sprints over then next hour of driving (to and from a party) it returned to running like a "Z" should .

I read somewhere that these LT5s get loaded up pretty easily, and NEED to be whipped like a rented mule to keep 'em in top shape - mine certainly seems to subscribe to that theory. But, based on my 5 years experience with similar winter storage idling procedures w/ my LT1 Vette, I was surprised by the amount of degradation the idling periods had on the LT5...From your experiences, are you surprised by this, or is that not characteristic of the LT5? I'm told the injectors were replaced before I bought it. (Hmmmm...sez me.) On the other hand, after some WOT/7000 runs, it came back to life (and boy did it ever!), so the injectors may be fine after all.

Well, all is well that ends well, but what say U 'bout this experience?

TIA,

P.