Hi.
I have a MY99 Classic Turbo with 80k on the clock.
I recently was out of the country for nearly a year and I left it from July til now in a gravel driveway. Now I am wanting to get it moving again and MOT'd etc. Will hopefully be driving back to Germany in two weeks.

All in the engine bay there is a dry frothy white powder that rubs off when I touch it and also the the lid of the coolant tank was removed. Is this frothy powder related to evapourated coolant by any chance? Anyway, before I had come to the conclusion this may not be healthy for the car, I jump started. While idleing til warmed up and then revving a bit, it gives off a really weird smell.

My last service was an interim after the big 90k and I had this done in the summer. What servicing do you think this would need now? Would a good service let me know if my car was actually rusted throughout and my engine likely to fail? If I look around the floor of the engine bay I can see rust in many places, but this was the case for a long time I think, and I always assumed it was external (cosmetic) rust. Can a mechanic test the health of the engine without taking it apart? What are your thoughts on this cars prognosis? I could obviously spend and spend on new parts and rebuilds etc, but its old now and not really worth it. I just hope I can get to a place where I feel safe driving again without the thought of the engine exploding ruining my fun.

Thanks in advance.

 

You probably should have taken the crank sensor off and then turned the engine over to get the oil pressure up and oil circulating before letting it fire up.

The white powder is oxidised aluminium, messy but harmless.

 

Right...I take it that leads to the smell. What's the damage done by not waiting for the oil pressure to come back? I only ran the engine for half an hour on the driveway, poking the throttle now and again. No warning lights were on.

 

If it's been sat for a year all the engine oil will have drained to the sump and there won't be much lubrication when she fired up initially - never good but if it took a few cranks to start her after a year then probably not too much too worry about.