right now my engine is jsut sitting, and it will be....hopefully untill summer latest, i was wondering if i should store it with or without oil?

keeps it lubed....

Yes!
Cheap old dino if your just going to change it.

If you can shoot some engine strorage spray down it and turn it over (the crank, not the whole engine ) a couple of times.

When I was working for Mike Salta Pontiac, in Long Beach, I was the only salesperson to sell TWO DeLoreans. The owner drove one, and disassembled the other. He oiled and bagged all the metal parts, to store them. Yes, leave it oiled. It's a pretty common practice, after an engine has been stored for a while, to pull the plugs and squirt a little WD40 in before starting it up again. Pre-lubrication.

marvel mystery oil in the sparkplug holes

oh...hijack

delorean's were the only cars sold from the factory with snow tires









Snow- drug reference - delorean dude caught selling 'snow'

The old joke, at the time was, that they haulted production because the car kept sucking the lines off the road.

even funnier!

"the stainless steel construction helps with the flux dispersal . . . "

Perhaps my favorite movie, child of the 80s here.

If you really want to go all out, you can get those dessicants that screw into the spark plugs. Instead, I would leave it with oil in it, pull the rockers, shoot some wd in the chambers, screw the plugs back in, seal up any other locations where air could easily get through (head PCV vents, crankcase breather), and forget about it. Springs can lose their "springiness" if left compressed for a long time, and, those open valves leave a nice passageway for air to get in. Through the winter you should be fine, but humid weather could let those barrels rust in the spring/summer.

The 914 engine I put in my beetle was seized only because the car I pulled it from sat for so long with the engine in one position that the open exhaust valve allowed that barrel to rust to the rings. I had to use a sledge hammer to get them apart! Granted that was probably 5+ years of sitting.

It seems like spraying WD40 into the spark plug holes before storage would be the wrong thing since WD40 contains solvents. I wouldn't squirt nothing but oil in there.

Right, oil for storage. WD40 before starting if it's been sitting a long time.

The engine I now have sat for 6 or 7 years with oil in it. Used the "Marvel Stuff" before installing it too. Turned over great...... and ran

........b

I'll add my $.02 here. I would use fresh oil if you're going to store it for more than a few months. Used oil may have just enough acids in it to start eating/softening/pitting stuff (aluminum, cam etc.) If possible, turn it over (without starting) until the oil pressure gets built up.

This isn't entirely related but I'll tell it anyway. I recently had taken a Type-1 engine apart which the old oil had eaten all the way through the case. Now, granted this engine had been sitting for 20+ years and I have no idea if the previous owner even bother keep the engine maintained back then. The old oil was dried and caked. Of course I don't expect you will run into anything this drastic or anything near it for the short amount of time yours will be sitting. It it was still a freightening sight for me none the less.

I still have the engine case if anyone wants pics.

R

I bought a water cooled engine from a wreaker 20 years ago. It had a tag on it that said "pickled". Turned out that they replaced the oil in their pulled engines with diesel fuel before storing. Was that an old way of storing engines and is it still common? Is there an advantage to it, or can it cause more problems?

-Jeff

Ok, two things from someone who owns a machine shop (and hangs out with people who talk about metalurgy and metal protection all the time).

First, WD-40 is for cleaning things. It is a solvent. It says lubricant but water is also a lubricant...so are lots of things that do a poor job of lubricating.

It might be OK for thinning up what the smart person used to actually protect their metal items later when it's time to use them.

Be cautious using protectants that "laquer" for protection in the cylinders for obvious reasons.

My personal experience is that Marvel doesn't. It is thin enough to spray and reasonable protects *unexposed* surfaces (no rain, acid...etc).

There are other products, but they are generally purpose built for industry and not available at the local auto store.


Secondly, I've watched long threads on the ability of springs to lose their "springy-ness" and the conclusion is always the same... springs can only lose their "spring" under motion...not stationary...even compressed. Only motion (use) can change their molecular structure.

Hope this helps
Sean

Jeff, that is interesting.
Diesel is hydroscopic so it absorbs water. As a film, I find it to be a good temporary protectant...which is why it makes for a good cleaner, just leave it until you apply something more substancial.

As a long term replacement for oil as protection I would think it would absorb enough water to create a biological presence (read bacteria). I am not sure if the diesel itself becomes a rust problem once it has absorbed the maximum amount though. Like I said, I use it in "film" strength where it's good for a few days.

Sean

That's news to me. I've been told by several different sources about several different products. "Do not store them with the springs compressed". Please note, when a metal changes temperatures it is moving or working. The metal is expanding and contracting on a molecular level. I would agree that if they are kept at a constant temperature they are not working. Not many people have thermostats in their garage. A spring under tension going through these temperature changes will fatigue more than one that is not under tension. I might believe that a spring in an ammo clip could fatigue if left loaded over a great length of time. But, I doubt that a valve spring being stored for the winter would show any signifigant change. Maybe after ten or twenty years they might. I agree, that you don't need to take any spring precautions during a yearly storage.

Springs can obtain a set, period. BUT, now that I think about it, they would have to be compressed past their yield strength which would cause them to permanently deform. This could never happen if the engine is left sitting in one position because if it did, the engine would have never run in the first place (valves would never return). My guess is that this old wives tale which apparently I just tried to blindly spread was based on people finding beat up springs on used engines, they thought they were beat up due to sitting, but the springs really had just pushed past their endurance limit (probably why the engine was shelved anyway). So sorry bout that. I would still be tempted to pull the rockers just so that less humidity can find its way into your engine, I saw first hand what it can do and it is easy to pull the rockers too.

Guess I was out of my element on my whole post with the WD40 comment also. Damn, learn something new everyday.

-Chris