The wife started the 960 to move it about one foot in the garage the other night. I heard the engine start, and then shut off about five seconds later. The classic "lawn mower symptom". Sure enough, the car wouldn't start the next day when she tried to crank it.

Thanks to the FAQ on this board, I was able to get it restarted without taking it to a dealer (open throttle one quarter, crank thirty seconds, rest, repeat... then the drive in low gear at 55 mph). It's due for an oil change anyway, so that will take care of the blowby problem.

My question, though, has to do with exactly what causes the car not to start. I thought it was because of small valves, weak springs, different expansion characteristics of the various parts involved, and carbon buildup on the valve stems that prevent the exhaust valve from fully closing, causing it to have no compression. Since I changed to Mobile 1 synthetic oil/Mann filters three oil changes ago, I thought I was done with this problem (it has happened twice before). So the question is, does it fail to start because of sticking valves, or does it have something to do with how the lifters pump up or not during the short engine run? Can the lifters be overfilled, causing the valves not to seat? Also, am I not running the car hard enough to burn carbon deposits? It's my wife's car around town, with occasional highway trips at the 75 - 80 mph speed.

Thanks again for all the insights, help, and encouragement from this board!

Robert