I accidently forgot to turn the key all the way off to let the turbo timer start and I took the keys out and walked away. Upon returning to my car about 3 hours later, I discovered I left it running! I don't know why my keys came out of the ignition, but it did! Used up about a full 1/3 tank gas too, ****! Lucky it was like minus 2 degrees outside. I turned it off and did a visual check, nothing overheated...nothing smelled like it was cooking. Checked the oil, everything cool...no scouring hot oil, just warm to the touch. I was quite surprised. But the thing is that AFTER i drove the car, after it had been idling for so LONG..it had MAJOR POWER! Like it pulled REALLY STRONG, stronger then ever before. I wonder what the heck idling it for so long did...but I think it gave my engine a chance to fully WARM up or something. My Temp gauge is faulty, it never reads more then past the upper tick by the C mark. I wonder if my 160 degree THERMOSTAT has always been keeping my car too cool and so now that it really warmed up, it performed a lot better. Do you guys think I should switch back to the OEM thermostat?

 

my car doesnt have a thermostat on a normal day it will never get above the 2nd line by the C, if i run it really hard ~5-7k rpms for an endured time it will almost reach 1/4 gauge but not quite it seems to work really well.

 

I don't know why the car would run better, but I have a story that will hopefully make you feel better about the incident...

I went to work one day and got a phone call right before I parked my car. Our lot at work was overfull, so I had to park down the street. I worked a 10 hour day, and then when it was time to go home I couldn't find my keys. As you have probably guessed already -- I left my daily driver idling in a parking lot down the street all day. It turned out that I had locked my keys in the car, and I had to call AAA to get them to come let me into my car. Nothing bad happened, but I felt pretty stupid.

-Max

 

no big deal. When we put in new motors in FD's, we usually start it up, hit the road and drive it around for about 15 minutes, stop, leak check and let it continue to run for at least an hour. Sometimes, we'll drop by the in&out burger, sit down and eat and let it sit there and idle. =]

 

"My names Forrest, Forrest Gump. Some people call me Forrest Gump."

 

HOLY CRAP!...ALL DAY?! Ok, now I don't feel so bad! But at least you LOCKED your keys in, I simply left the car like that on own will...I guess I'm more stupid...

 

How do you get away with NO thermostat at all? Doesn't it take FOREVER for your car to warm up? You must live in a fairly warm climate then. Also I heard if you got no thermostat, you could also LOSE coolant pressure, cause the thermostat holds or has something to do with the pressure buildup in the system...not quite sure though.

 

Idling 3 hours won't hurt nothin... how many times ahve you DRIVEN 3 hours? Puts a lot more wear on the motor than just sitting there at 750rpm would...

 

2 things
1. at least you didn't leave it in gear...
2. the racers around here start a new motor idle it for 45min to an hour and then go racing, so maybe you rebroke in your motor

mike

 

I left my s-10 running all day in the parking lot at my old high school. The security guards treid to break into it to shut it off, but to no avail! It ran out of gas, and killed the battery!

 

I left a party a while back and had a few too many drinks, so I when I got to my car, I figured I would just start the car, let it warm up and sit for a few minutes to sober up a little. The next thing I new, I was waking up, my heat was blasting full, and the clock showed 3 hours later than when I had left the party. AND, I was sober.

 

I used to get out of the car thinking I had the keys all the time. Turbo timer was always messin me up, couldnt tell wether i turned the car off or not, Ive been woken up in the middle of the night complaining that my car was running in the parking lot. Youd think I'd learn after the first time.

 

When I accidently fell asleep in my car at a car show in Carlisle it idled for like 2 hours and fouled out my plugs and it took the whole drive home (like 1 hour and 15mins) to clean it out.

 

thankfully the guys that fell asleep with it idling have good emission equipment or you probably never would've woken up.
remember, (CO) kills. it's Carbon Monoxide in case you didn't know

 

Yea I thought about that, I have no emissions on my car.

 

As long as the cooling system is working, there nothing to worry about. I left mine idling for 6 hours because of the same thing, took out key and thought it was on turbo timer.

C

 

I have no emissions equipment eiter! yikes...

 

You already know my opinions on you running a 160 degree thermostat in your car.. so We won't go back into that...

The only thing wrong with idling your car for a long period of time is the excessive carbon build up.. Do this too often and things will start to go wrong.. do this by mistake a few times and you should be okay..

Most turbo manfucaturers don't suggest idling the car for great periods of time (After cool down times) because of the carbon build up on the turbine side that occures..