Guest DodgeKCL Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 (edited) I know this subject has been brought up before but I see it being discussed on another topic right now so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.To keep mice at bay I put a box of moth balls in 2 inverted Frisbees and put one on the rear floor and one on the front floor. Clothes dryer softening sheets are now all the rage as well but I think you have to stick to 'Bounce' brand. There's a possibilty others don't work.You should put the car/truck up on axle stands but put the stands under the frame at the 4 corners so that the tires drop but don't touch the floor. This will lengthen the years you get out of the rubber. Also let the tire pressure down to 1/2.In very cold climes make sure you have sufficient antifreeze but DO NOT drain and leave nothing in the system. I always put in a can of stabilzer that they sell to strengthen the anticorrosion/rust properties of the antifreeze. I use Prestone products.Buy and follow the instructions for an engine cylinder storage mist. This will keep the steel rings from rusting to the cylinder walls over the winter and breaking when you do that first start in the Spring.Wax/polish the vehicle and cover it. If there are any windows in the storage area, cover them. If you can get to the vehicle and can put a charger on it then leave the battery in it. But disconnect the ground cable. (It's always best to work with the ground cable because the chance of shorting things with your wrench are less.) If you can't get to the battery then take it out and store it OUTSIDE in the cold , maybe in the corner of a shed. Do not store it indoors as a battery discharges at a rate of 50% per month at room temperature. At or near freezing it's discharge rate drops to 1%. Each month during the Winter ,at or near the same time, put a 2 to 4 amp trickle charger on the battery for a day,breakfast to supper. This will keep the sulfation down to minimum. Do not add water unless you are going to do the charge thing. The water may not mix with the acid and it will freeze and damage the battery. With a good bright charging system on your vehicle you will get 10 to 12 years out of a battery. I consistently do.Once a month at the same time ,as you are doing the battery charge, open the driver's door and push the brake pedal several times. This will lubricate the various cylinders and prevent weeping at the rubber cups.Store the vehicle with a FULL tank of gas and put in a stabilizer and run the engine to get the stabilizer up to the carb. (This will be done before the storage misting.)Drain the engine oil and put in fresh. Replace the oil filter if you have one. Do not run the engine again after putting in the fresh oil. - If anyone can think of something else,please add it.* A couple of additions and edits: My wife tells me Bounce has a different and stronger perfume to it than the off brands. She believes it's that that keeps the mice at bay. The engine storage spray is sold under different brand names. It comes in a spray can and you remove the spark plugs and spray it into the cylinders and turn over the engine with the starter motor with the coil disconnected. Put the spark plugs back in and just leave it. Dont' start the engine again until Spring. This stuff keeps the innards from rusting and the rings especially from sticking to the cylinder walls. This is one of the biggest causes of ring breakage. You should do it to your lawn mowers and garden tractors as well. Another addition I just remembered from my armed forces days is silica gel desiccant. The military leaves bags of the stuff inside mothballed equipment to take up the moisture. I'm not sure where we civilians would buy it in a large quantity? I'm in the rust/salt belt up here and I would never take my prized possesions out in the Winter slush. And I don't recommend anybody else do it either. Obviously though this information is going out world wide and some of you will be in much warmer climes than me. Winter may be nothing more than a slight drop in temperature. Lucky you! Edited October 9, 2009 by DodgeKCL (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Zetnick Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Thanks a lot! Great info......I'm not to that point yet of having a runing engine, but I'll print it for my file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Cozza Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Hi,My two cents.I don't do anything for winter aside, for anti-freeze, to my cars,I keep a battery tender on the batteries. I also try to start the cars on the weekends and drive them around the block to warm up the tranny and rear end. That's if there no snow on the ground.I'm not saying I don't freeze my butt off but it's still nice to drive the cars. The only time I don't do that is if I'm going to do some serious work on one of them.Last year I got a lot of looks driving my 23 touring in 20 degrees weather with the top down. I could just hear the neighbors, there goes Joe the, nut down the street:)Joe C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuaneK Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Can you explain this engin cyl. mist?DuaneK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBrinker Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 When I put my cars away I disconnect the battery and shut the door and don't open it till spring.I never start them because of the moisture from the cold engine heating up and then cooling.I done it this way for 40 years and have never had a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuaneK Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Rick I did the same thing with my motorhome. Just the normal things. winterize the plumbing. I think starting them is harder on the engine ( dry cyl. walls) DuaneK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nearchoclatetown Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Pretty good thread here. I just found out Sta-Bil makes a blue formula for the alcohol crap we buy as gasoline. If you believe in a stabilizer it may be worth checking into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACK M Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The mist that was refered to is storage fogging oit. It is sprayed down the throat of the carburator and coats the internals of the manifolds and combustion areas as well as valves ect.. Very common in boats. However the NAPA store sells it. Some people just use any oil. Get a good cloud going and shut it down for the last time until spring. Then another cloud when you first fire it up. Do all of this after your treated fuel is clear thru your system. If you can drain the carburator or time yourself to run it out of fuel at the right time it would be a bonus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nofrills33 Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 All good suggestions and will also print and store...Question-why should you NOT drain radiator?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBrinker Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Can't rust if it doesn't have air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DodgeKCL Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Trouble is there is oxygen present in the system if you drain it. Also most vehicles prior to WWII had non pressurized cooling systems which are permanently open to the atmosphere. Unless the temperatures can be controlled in the engine/vehicle and storage area, the difference in temperatures will cause a difference in pressure and the engine will 'breathe' and change it's oxygen content for fresh over and over again. This is why you keep a rust and hard water scale inhibitor in the system at all times. This information is verbatum via phone to Prestone Canada engineering. I also have a letter somewhere from Prestone saying the same things. Most people forget that when an engine halts it is actually still in a 'running state'. That is different valves are open to varying degrees just as if it's still running but is frozen in time. (Gas is still there, oil is still there and coolant is still there. We just remove the electric spark and the engine stumbles to a halt. ) The valves are still open to atmosphere, from the tailpipe/exhaust system and the intake manifold/carb, and oxygen and moisture can get to the various parts of the stopped engine's innards. This is why you need to use a long term storage spray. I have gone through several makes of waxes/polishes over the years and now use Meguiars' NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0. The bottle says it's made in the U.S. in Irvine Calif. It's affordable for me and it gives the paint a deeper color and the greater shine is immediately noticeable. For what it's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nofrills33 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Right ... as soon as I posted I realized metal is metal and rust is rust no matter where it is! Maybe I should consider vacuum sealing the car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1930 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 My Brother details cars for a living he he swears by that tech wax, I use WD 40, only problem with that is that it collects the dust and keeps it there until it wiped down again. My grandfather swore by furniture polish of some kind, cant remember Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DodgeKCL Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 (edited) When the armed forces mothball an airplane,tank,ship or weapons they tape over all the openings of the engine,cockpit, fuel tanks etc. They also use a god awful compound called cosmoline and cover everything in it. Inside and out. You haven't lived until you've had to unpack and clean small arms sealed in brown paper and cosmoline. (We never did seem to get it all out it of the breaches and off the bolts so the 9 mm. SMGs would actually fire slower in the Winter than in the Summer sticking on the cosmoline.) But the armed forces were serious about preservation. They put in large bags of silica gel desiccant to absorb moisture out of the air because they knew the pressure changes caused by temperature changes would draw in new atmosphere with moisture. So I think it's not a matter of 'will' our babies deteriorate in storage, they will and we need to take all the steps we can. And as a second thought putting a bag of desiccant in can't hurt. Edited October 9, 2009 by DodgeKCL (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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