As David stated above Malcolm, you are right on the money. Running ANY engine for short peroids of time is not good. Again, I am no Meteor expert, but the rules should still apply as to any other gasoline engine. Gas engines have a distinctive disadvavantage when compared to diesel engines. Gas "washes" down the cylinder walls constantly, removing precious lubricating oils. I would think that mothballing the engine for the winter storage time would be better than running the engine occasionally only to bring it up to temperature (where thermal expansion has done its work to bring the pistons to the correct operating clearance), and then shut it down after a short run. I did a simple mothballing on my carrier engine every fall, and never had a lick of trouble with stuck valves (a common flat head problem), pistons or rings in 21 years.
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