In the next few weeks a I am going to drop the engine and gearbox out of my rusty bus and keep them in the garage until I need them for next project or as spares for my new camper. What do you need to do to an engine that is being stored wrt oil, sealing up stuff, etc?

Cheers

I've been told that you pull off your rocker assembly so the the spings are not under tention, put the covers back on then fill the whole thing with oil.

Or you you could just ask Dave he'll know

What ^ said,and warm up engine drain oil and refill with fresh oil.

The other reason you want the rockers off is so it closes ALL springs and no air can them get inside.

This will limit the chance of rust forming on the sides

Yea, all valves need to be closed so no moisture can find its way into the cylinders, as the cylinder walls are bare metal just waiting to start forming rust.
To do that just take off all the rocker assembilies as said before, but leave the valves and springs on.
Good luck
Chewy

Thanks guys. Should be doing it in a couple of weeks. What about the tranny? Change the oil in that too and then just leave it?

That is a bit harder as where the shaft sticks out the nose cone it "can" sieze there if not protected.
This happened to a 1200 case i left outside for many years wrapped in plastic

Guess you could then just take off the nose cone.
Maybe just give it a good greasing

i would think it would make sence if you really wanted to store it to fill it to the top with oil, pull the heads off and grease the cylinders and stuff and grease anywhere there can be water entrance, wrap it up and put it in a crate and store it away

well thats wat id do

Thanks a lot for the help everyone. Ill let you know ho I go.

maybe grab a WHOLE FISTFULLS of those little silica moisture absorbing sachets from the inside of pill bottles and whack them in the crate along with the engine...?

Take the spark plugs out- squirt about 5 squirts of engine oil inside the cylinders - turn the engine over a few times to get the oil onto the cylinder walls.. -put anti-seize on the spark plug threads and screw them back in... -
undo the rocker gear - make sure they have some oil on them too... replace rocker- tappet covers... seal the carby air intake...
My engine somehow got moisture in one cylinder while I've been slowly restoring it.. couldn't turn it over by hand...
the cylinder cleaned up OK...
My Son's engine did the same to 2 cylindres - car just sitting for a few years after restoration... somehow moisture got in and ate into the cylinders... He had to replace two 1835cc cylinders...
Basically, make sure moisture can't get in....

Lee Noonan -- 68Autobug --

The photo is of My Automatic Transmission Fluid pump, which sits on top of the normal engine oil pump...

The green pipes - one goes to the ATF Tank which is located under the RHS rear guard and the other goes to the torque converter....
Under the LHS rear guard is the Vacuum storage tank ....
I had to take both of these off last week to bolt the rear Bumper bar brackets on... very difficult job ... I'd like to see someone doing it at the factory... to see how they do it...

Lee

Pic is of the engine oil pump... before the ATF pump goes on..

so you close all your valves.......................what happens to the condensation in the barrels due to variances in outside temps?


Thanks for the pics Lee.................I think :duh

I can't answer that one craig,

I believe its better to have everything closed up as the only cyclinder I had very bad surface rust etc was where the valve was open.... the others were OK...

also make sure You empty out the fuel from the carby as the fuel turns to junk... yucky stuff after many months and clogs everything up including the accelerator pump valves in the carburetor...

Lee....

I suppose Craig that you might want to go out to the garage where you keep it and turn it over by hand, maybe once a month or so that it moves the oil up and down the cylinder wall keeping a nice coating of oil on it so it dust rust or seize in place.

I suppose just because its stored dosn't mean you can forget about it. It still needs a little maintinance.

A freind of mine stored his Ghia for a few years this way and not long ago brought it back to life, it started first go without any prob and idled smooth as.

But I thought you'd know that Craig, with your experiance.