Re: Winter storage

["Kirbert" <palmk@mailer.gadcomm.net>]

> From:  "Lauren E. Pratt" <pratt@its.bldrdoc.gov>:

> > One of the most important things I've found is to add fuel stabilizer,if
> > vehicle sits for up to 3 months or more.
> 
> This is the most important thing to do as it prevents gumming
> up the carbs and injectors due to the varnish formation that
> is in all gasoline.

If you're gonna do the injectors any good, I presume you've gotta run it a 
while after adding the stabilizer.

>    >Many people suggest pulling the plugs and spraying WD40 in 
>      >there.
> 
> First WD 40 is the 40th formulation of a Water Displacement product.

Cool!  I didn't know that's where the name came from.

> It has NO lubrication qualities to it, even though it will dissolve
> some oil and grease in some cleaning applications.

It makes a GREAT cleaner, that's a fact!

> Just spray some
> on a piece of class or metal and in a few hours it will be gone,
> all gone, no oil left. Inside a cylinder it will only wash off
> what oil is there leaving the cylinder wall dry. Worse than doing
> nothing. 

Well, I dunno about being worse than nothing, but other than that I suspect 
what you say may be true.  The nice thing about WD 40 is that it is an 
aerosol, so a squirt into a plug hole is likely to cover everything in there. 
 Whether or not it stays put, I dunno.

I would think that the ideal thing would be an aerosol that creates a fog 
within the cylinder when sprayed, then stays put on the surfaces it lands on.

> Mixing oil in with the gasoline and cranking the engine with the
> ignition disabled will cause the same effect, unless the mixture
> is about 50% oil. You will get a lot of unburned fuel and only a 
> very small amount of oil. The unburned fuel will condense and again
> wash what oil there is off the cylinder walls.

Yeah, I suppose so.

> The best solution is to use the fuel stabilizer in the fall before
> winter storage and in the spring remove the plugs, pour 1 spoon 
> full of oil into each cylinder, crank the engine over several times
> to distribute the oil, reinstall the plugs and start it up.

Putting a spoonful of oil in a cylinder does nothing for me.  Since all of my 
engines are either V or otherwise slanted, it seems to me the oil will just 
sit on the downhill side of the chamber and slide up and down with the 
piston, never touching the uphill side.

Why are you adding oil just before starting?  Don't you want to protect the 
cylinders from rust and corrosion at the beginning of the storage period?

> Note: save some summer time fuel with no alcohol for topping up in
> the fall if you fear alcohol damage of your rubber fuel parts.

Hmmm.  Could use some more elaboration.  I presume you're suggesting that the 
gas sold in your area in the fall is "oxygenated", and therefore contains 
ethanol?  And that this will screw stuff up?

The only parts I've ever seen damaged by ethanol were diaphrams, notably in 
2-stroke chainsaw carbs and the like.  The ethanol causes the diaphram to get 
hard and quit moving.  I suppose it might have the same effect on Zenith 
Stromberg slide diaphrams and carb accelerator pumps, I dunno.  Dunno what it 
could hurt on a modern EFI car, though.

It'll screw up anything put together with Permatex, that's for sure!  The 
side of the tube suggests using alcohol to clean it off your hands!

Besides all that, topping up with summer gas won't get alcohol out of the 
system unless you run the car dry first -- which is exactly what you're 
supposed to do with those chainsaws!

 -- Kirbert      |     If anything is to be accomplished,
                 |     some rules must be broken.
                 |          - Palm's Postulate

---

Follow-Ups:

• Re: Winter storage
• From: Matthias FOUQUET-LAPAR <mfl@cray.com>

References:

• Re: Winter storage
• From: "Lauren E. Pratt" <pratt@its.bldrdoc.gov>

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