[Bob86ZZ4]

Reading through the owner's manual for my Caterpillar C12 motor I noticed they advise to disconnect the fuel pump solonoid and crank the motor for several seconds if you haven't started the engine for more than 3 days. This is to allow the oil pump to circulate oil throughout the engine before starting the combustion process. 3 days seems a short time to require that, but it certainly can't hurt. I live in MN and store my Vette for the winter. I always disable the ignition before starting in the spring, crank it to build oil pressure, then hook up the coil and start it. I think that's better for an engine. So, the Cat manual doesn't suggest the best way to disconnect the fuel pump solonoid. I found the fuse for it behind the fuse box cover. I pulled the fuse. I inserted a short jumper wire from the keyed hot terminal of the fuse box to one terminal on the fuse (using crimp on connectors with 12 guage wire, should be plenty good to handle the 10 amp fuse). Then ran a wire from the other fuse terminal across behind the dash to the driver's area. Put in a single pole single throw switch. Ran another wire from the other switch terminal to the fuse panel terminal. Important to make sure to fuse protect the long wires that run from the panel over to the switch. Mounted the switch. Now I'm set to easily prime the oil system/engine before it fires up. I didn't bother testing it today because I didn't want to start the engine since I wasn't going to have time to pull it out and drive it a bit. I've posted this here as advise to others in case you didn't get an engine manual.