Winter Storage

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Many of you have specialty cars that do not get driven in the winter. The question I will answer here is what is the best way to store the car and treat the engine?

First of all, here is what not to do: Do not start the car up every few weeks to “warm it up”! You might think that this helps by getting the oil circulating, charging the battery, and somehow protecting the engine for when you are ready to get back on the road. The problem with doing this is that while you can get the coolant warm on a cold winter day by idling or revving the engine in neutral, you can not get the oil warm-enough to drive off the raw fuel and water that you introduce to the crankcase during this process. Water (steam) is present in the blowby gasses that get by every piston ring on every engine cycle. When the engine and oil sump are cold, the steam condenses to liquid water and then gets mixed with the good oil.
What you really are doing to you engine is adding several tablespoons of water to the oil in your sump every time you do this. By the end of the winter you will have a substantial amount of liquid water sitting in the bottom of your sump, and there will be some raw fuel dilution of the oil from the cold-starts. It is much better to just let the engine sit all winter with fresh oil. The first start after the whole winter will not be any tougher on bearings than the starts you might normally do after just a few days or weeks of not running. If you are really concerned about engine wear after a long-storage start, there are many ways of pre-oiling an engine.

An acceptable alternative to the above, if weather permits, is to take your car for an long mid-winter drive (at least 1/2 hour). It takes moderate load driving to get the oil sump temp over 150F, the temp necessary to drive off the accumulated condensation.

The best overall strategy is to also put the car up on jacks-stands to prevent flat-spotting the tires and cover or wrap the car.

It is also a good idea to seal the air intake and exhaust system (tailpipe) with plastic after the engine has cooled off to keep condensation out.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by admin.
• This topic was modified 4 years ago by admin.

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