Engine Storage
 

I got a question about a second motor i'm "storing" for the time being. I've done a few google searches and all of them come up with completely different things, blah blah. I want to know what YOU guys recommend.

Just so you know what i have already done. I've drained the trans fluid, oil is still in it (trans fluid needed to come out for this engine to be pulled form donor car). I've poured a little oil down the spark plug holes (maybe less than i should have?) and turned it over a few times(a few months back). How often should it be turned over too? I've shoved rags in the coolant lines. Coolant was also drained about as much as would come out anyway, i'm sure some is still stuck inside. That's about all that's done to it, and it's sitting on a little dolly with wheels. Upright and under a cover.

This engine probably wont get broken into soon. Maybe not even till the end next winter, after i accumulate parts over summer / winter. Also read how to build an engine, unless someone wants to help. :loser: Or tell me what to buy. :D

Thanks.

Plastic wrap every opening (with tape), oil in cylinders and crank it by hand a lot, hose it all down with WD40, wrap whole motor in plastic x2. Place somewhere you won't stub toes on it or it's in the way.

Rags falls out, collect dirt in the hole, mice like to eat 'em up for some reason. Crap then gets in hole. Makes Hulk mad.

If you are planning to build it, soak the cylinders in wd-40, cap off all the holes and don't worry too much. Use tape and plastic like torque zombie said though instead of rags. As long as it's stored in a dry place out of the environment it will be fine until you decide to tear into it. Now if you decide you want to remove this motor from storage and throw it back in a car, that can be more challenging.

if the OP doesn't mind, let's discus this also, future searches may find this helpful. Let's say your pushing the envelope with your set up and tune (knowingly or unknowingly), and you wanted a "spare" stock long block to swap in quickly if things go south. Is it feasible to store a motor in "ready to go state"?

This motor will ultimately be torn down and rebuilt. Though it only has less than 50,000 miles on it. It won't be nothing to silly, just be able to handle the max output of my gt2560. So, rods, pistons, bearings, hone, maybe a light port / polish of the head ect. I have a second car I daily if the miata engine fails. Which it shouldn't on 10psi.

Thanks for the information. I shouldn't be to worried about what i'm doing if i'm going to be tearing it down. But i'll be taping up all the openings for sure. Gonna do that right now.

Yeah, if you're building the main goal is just preventing corrosion. As long as the water jackets stay pretty rust free and the cylinders stay mostly clean so they can be honed fresh later, it's all good.

If the goal on the other hand is to have a 'spare' ready to go, you need to step it up a level. Coat cylinders with WD-40, leave fresh-ish oil in the pan, seal up every port as best you can. Wrap the whole block in at least 2 layers of relatively thick plastic. The thicker drop clothes used for painting work great. Basically, you just want to keep everything lubed, clean, and away from the elements as much as possible. At least that was the procedure at work for spare race car motors.