Like many others my Elan is tucked up in the garage for the winter on a trickle charger to maintain the battery - my question is concerning the merits of whether it is worth periodically running the engine or whether this does it more harm than good ? If I leave the car untouched for a few days or a week I get the common problem of noisy tappets that persist until the engine is thoroughly warmed up that can take 10 minutes or more - I understand why this is ie oil draining down from the hydraulic lifters - a quirk that has been with this car for many years with no apparent adverse affect ie no exhaust smoke, no oil consumption etc and always quietens down - am wondering whether it's best just to leave it alone till the spring then take it out for it's first proper warm up ?
Tony