Storing an engine

Howard Rose realised it was Fri, 16 Jul

Drain the old oil, circulate some new oil through it, put some oil in the bores, put the plugs in and put some oily rags in intake and exhaust manifolds. Store in a dry place at as constant a temperature as possible (ie. not in a shed at the bottom of the garden).

I'd fill it right up with cheap oil - including the bores, but only lightly screw the plugs back in.

Drain water. Drain the oil, fill with (cheap) fresh oil. Remove plugs, squirt oil into combustion chamber - not too much - turn engine over several times to lubricate the bores, replace plugs. Plug inlet/exhaust ports, etc. Leave the gearbox as it is, except grease where the gearchange linkage is, the shaft rusts and seizes.

Store indoors, not outdoors!

Alex

Can't add any more than has already been said about string, but do you want another?

I know of one going for somewhere between cheap and free, in West Dorset. Condition completely unknown, has been stood for a long time without any sort of care taken, don't know the engine number to look it up either. I doubt it's worth anything, but it would be nice to see it out the way and hopefully it'd be of use to someone :)

Hi, you can get special engine storage oil from mail order, cant remember the name of the company, but its under £20, I think you put enough in to cover the crankshaft so moisture doesn't cause rust to form on the shaft thus causing to seize.

Dont quote me though!

Jono

It's not usually the crank that seizes, but the pistons in the bores.

you're gonna want to put lots of oil in the bores thru the spark plug holes too, to stop them from seizing.

Thanks for the advice everyone! One question though, storing the engine full of cheap oil... do I fill to as much as you would if the engine was in use or more? Bearing in mind the mini a-series has the gearbox in the sump...

-- Howard Rose

Where abouts in Dorset (I'm in Poole) :-)

I'm probabally not interested since I have 2 850's already! But, do you know what year it is? I could be interested if it's an early one... Do you have an engine number? :-)

-- Howard Rose

I'd fill it right up to the very top of the filler. It won't take all that much. This will drive out any damp air that's inside and prevent any further corrosion.

You might have to seal up the dipstick in some way - and if any oil seals are gone it will probably leak. ;-)

Dorchester, so not overly far.

I don't right now, but I'll be back that way Wednesday with any luck - I'll try to remember, but feel free to remind me as it's quite a long time from now :)

hey, it's an A-series, it will leak anyway!

If it's got tappet covers it certainly will, also it will more than likely leak from the clutch area, the crankshaft seal was never 'that' good...

Yes- you'd have to block the breather there too.

Trying to remember when they changed from the rope seal to the sprung rubber type.

But they still have an un-sealed PB bearing between the crank and the clutch output transfer gear IYSWIM....

I certainly wouldn't fill it completely with oil. I go along with fluching out the old oil, refilling to normal level with cheap oil and some oil in the bores. You'll probably want to take the gear stick off for storage so grease the accessible rods and linkage.

I'd back the rocker adjusters off for the open valves to take the pressure off and seal the cylinders. Take the air filter off and tape over the carb inlet, or take the manifold off and tape over the side of the cylinder head. Spray some WD40 inside the ports first.

There's little point in just filling it to the normal level - apart from in this case the gearbox. None of the engine parts will be below the oil level.

It really depends on how long the OP proposes to store the engine, perhaps the best solution is to 'shrink-wrap' the whole unit in that heat shrink plastic wrapping (not that cheap but effective) that many machine shops use to wrap recon parts in.

I think it would be impossible to completely fill an engine anyway, there are bond to be air pockets and thus condensation in those areas.

That's true, but you're never going to get oil up the bores under the pistons anyway. So what you really need to do is get rid of the old gunge (take the filter element out and clean the bowl while you're at it) and coat all the internal surfaces including the cylinders liberally with new oil. Then just stop damp getting in.