How often to run the engine in a Centurion?

[eddy8men]

over winter i used a 12v ctek battery charger on my cromwell. it worked well but would only do one battery at a time (the 24v version was 5x more expensive)

[jdmcm]

Malcolm

We have been running our centurion at least once a week, we try to get it fired up and run it around the property for 30-40 min (best chore ever) Fortunately Rick had all the fluids topped up and the coolant was good to -25c when it arrived, which if we ever see -25c here on the west coast I'm going to buy one of those stupid Donald Trump hats and move to Arizona, but I digress. As the shop is jammed full the Centurion has to live outside and in the interest of easy starting we keep a C-tek battery charger on each battery, a small thermostatically controlled electric heater in the fighting compartment keeps the moisture away, especially the "sweats" you get having the tank tarped in this humid climate, and finally two Temro heater magnets attached to the radiator header tank, this keeps the coolant warm and boy does it make the tank easy to start. I was going to add one to the oil tank but currently it is just too oily in the engine bay to be safe, perhaps once we get a chance to steam it all clean.

John

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[MartinCummins]

No actual experience, but I remember my father in a garage in Llandudno, North Wales, UK, having to go around all those customers who had had their cars mothballed for the duration of WW2, take off the heads, and hammer down the pistons with a baulk of timber. Condensation was the problem!

MartinCummins.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Martin


Your comment on stories your father told you is a wonderful example of stories lost in time. Probably also spoke of rubber drives and having to mount tires on cars stored with the tires removed.



"No actual experience, but I remember my father in a garage in Llandudno, North Wales, UK, having to go around all those customers who had had their cars mothballed for the duration of WW2, take off the heads, and hammer down the pistons with a baulk of timber. Condensation was the problem!

MartinCummins."


I kind of doubt that we would see today's mechanics making house calls like that.


Thanks for sharing.


Cheers Phil

[MartinCummins]

Thanks, Phil, for your kind words. Still, off topic, my Father remembered, as a very young child, around 1905, a French mechanic coming from the manufacturer of his Father's car (Either a Mors or a Darracq) and staying with the family while he updated the ignition from Flame to Electric. This took around a week, and said Frenchman managed to set fire to himself while brazing. As a young child, father was much impressed by the mechanic calmly throwing himself into the nearby horsetrough, and continuing the modification, somewhat bedraggled! True!

MartinCummins,

[Mike Cecil]

I've used battery maintainers on my various batteries for years, both in the US and previously in Australia. They are different to battery chargers.

Never had a problem with a dead battery when using a maintainer. At around $30USD each, a cheap way to keep batteries fully charged but not 'cooked' or overcharged.

There were instances, of course, when a battery would not hold a charge, but each one has been well past its use by date, so not, as far as I'm aware, caused by the maintainer.

Outside storage V inside storage: the commonly accepted difference in the rate if deterioration is about 1:15, ie 15 times faster deterioration when stored outside. I knew of a motorcycle collector who had his collection in an area of cold & damp under his house. His solution was to more or less seal the room and leave a 40-watt incandescent light bulb on all the time: it gave off just enough heat to keep the cold and moisture at bay. Maybe that's a solution for the inside of a tank?

Mike

[jdmcm]

Also a handy item for keeping interior moisture at bay is a boat air dryer, you leave them plugged in and they give off just enough heat to keep things dry, I used them a fair bit when I had my trucking outfit. If you had a truck sit too long during winter here on the coast, the interiors would become damp and soon start to grow a nice furry green mold. The air dryer took care of that in short order. Perhaps 2 in a big tank like a Centurion, maybe one in the drivers hole and the other in the fighting compartment? So far I have a small electric heater with a thermostat that does roughly the same thing.