My truck will likely not be driven over the summer while I do some major work and I'd like to take some steps to prevent rust from forming on the cylinder walls, other places inside the motor.
The FSM says that if the truck is to be stored for over 30 days, you should "add one quart of special rust-preventative oil to each 5 gallons of gas in the fuel tank" and then "run the engine on this mixture for 5 minutes at 1000 RPM." They also suggest running the carb dry, then adding some of this oil into each spark plug hole and cranking the motor, and also removing the valve covers and spraying down the rocker arms, etc.
What specific products would qualify as "special rust-preventative oil"? I almost bought some Marvel Mystery Oil, but man, by the feel of the stuff sloshing around in the bottle it's mostly solvent--can't imagine it leaves much residual oil.
Any suggestions?
I wonder what the Dodge boys could have been using back in '73...imagine this was a common practice at dealerships...
bherder
05-04-2009, 05:36 PM
Hahahaha! Sounds like the Dodge Boys trying to sell snake oil :D
30 days??? Hell, I've been letting my 95' Dodge van sit for it's whole life, 4 months at a time during winter (Well .... I might ... If I remember .... start it up once or twice during winter) and have had no probs ...
Hee Hee .... I've got a can of (From the late 60's) Mopar 'Crankcase Conditioner' sitting in my shop as a 'memento' that The Crusty Ol' Mechanic gave me, because he knows I'm a Dodge-Freak ... The label says to add at every oil change, and it will do wonderful magical things to your engine ..
(The stuff sounds/feels thick like STP) ... So ya gotta ask yourself .. If this stuff is that good, why didn't a percentage of it come in every quart of 'Mopar' engine oil?
Ed, if you really need to worry about it... Just go and start your truck up once a month and let it run for 20 minutes... Make sure it's in the '30 Day' limit though ... If you wait till 31 days, your engine will assuredly 'Grenade' ...
:D :D :D
Ya know .... Now that I think about it... Back in the Caveman Days ... We used to use STP as assembly lube on a whole bunch of stuff ... Thick like honey, so once there was a 'coat' of it on something, it was going to be there till it was flushed away with hot oil...
charlie1935
05-04-2009, 05:47 PM
I use to use a 50/50 mix of STP and 30 wt oil. :gr_patrio
bherder
05-04-2009, 06:03 PM
I use to use a 50/50 mix of STP and 30 wt oil. :gr_patrio
Hee hee hee .... OK Charlie, you can be 'Proud Member Number Two' of "The Caveman Club" ... :D :D :D
Speed Dragon
05-04-2009, 06:10 PM
The 383 in my Coronet sat for 10 years probably, it starts and runs fine. The 240Z I had sat for around 8 year w/o cranking, it was also fine. I don't think I'd worry about it.
L5wolvesf
05-04-2009, 08:58 PM
You may just want to put some Stabil in the tank before storing the truck. It may keep iffy fuel from going bad.
L
bherder
05-04-2009, 09:25 PM
You may just want to put some Stabil in the tank before storing the truck. It may keep iffy fuel from going bad.
Yup, probably not a bad idea .... ya know what though .... I've got a roto-tiller that I use (Thankfully) only once a year .... And it's had the same gas in it for the last 5 years ... (I might 'top it off' with a pint or two every spring) .... But it still starts and runs good every spring ... (Actually, I keep hoping the damn thing will break .. ;D )
Megunticook
05-04-2009, 10:50 PM
I figured I was going to get ridiculed for asking that question. Like the old GM mechanic says to me, "son, you READ too much"
Just go and start your truck up once a month and let it run for 20 minutes
I would do that except I'm going to drain the coolant out and replace the 10+ year-old radiator. Given how little free time I have to work on stuff like this, it could damn well be another Memorial Day to Labor Day stint.
When I fired it up last September after it sat since Memorial Day last year, you could definitely hear there was some serious friction going on in the motor. It was all the starter could do to crank the thing in slow motion (battery was freshly charged). Fired up no problem, but that kind of friction can't be good in there, and if there's rust on the piston walls it seems like that's going to wear things out a lot quicker.
Does it mean the engine is ruined? Of course not, but it may well hasten the day when it needs to be rebuilt by a few thousand miles...who knows.
In any case I don't see the harm in a little precautionary effort.
So mixing STP with 30 wt. is the old school method? Is that STP fuel injector cleaner you're talking about? What product specifically?
And what is that Marvel stuff good for, anyway? Seems awfully thin to me, but I've never used it.
Speed Dragon
05-04-2009, 11:06 PM
Pour some 2-cycle oil in the gas :)
charlie1935
05-05-2009, 12:07 AM
No meg, that was the STP engine oil additive. Thick like honey but it don't taste like honey. ;)
bherder
05-05-2009, 08:42 AM
Ed, me thinks thou worryist too much ... ;)
Besides, changing the radiator shouldn't take you more than two hours anyway.. Beer breaks included. :D
Megunticook
05-05-2009, 12:31 PM
Ed, me thinks thou worryist too much ... ;)
In the immortal words of Alfred E. Neuman, "What--me worry?"
Besides, changing the radiator shouldn't take you more than two hours anyway.. Beer breaks included. :D
Actually, in my case it's a little more complicated than that. I've got to helicoil that right rear manifold stud first, and I've got to pull the radiator core support and r&r that, which is going to take a lot of time I'm sure.
So once the coolant's drained, I won't be firing up the motor for some time.
Granted, this is not something to lose sleep over. But put it this way--I just saw a cool story online about a dude in Connecticut who's still driving the Mustang he bought in '71--over 600,000 original miles on it. He's one anal bast-rd, records every fillup, mileage, etc. Oil changes every 3000 miles, overhauls his whole ignition system periodically (bench tests the distributor), washes the car regularly, including the undercarriage. It's no accident he's gotten well over half a million miles on his motor...
bherder
05-05-2009, 03:11 PM
I just saw a cool story online about a dude in Connecticut who's still driving the Mustang he bought in '71--over 600,000 original miles on it. He's one anal bast-rd, records every fillup, mileage, etc. Oil changes every 3000 miles, overhauls his whole ignition system periodically (bench tests the distributor), washes the car regularly, including the undercarriage. It's no accident he's gotten well over half a million miles on his motor...
Yeah, well, you HAVE to do that stuff on a FURD!!
. . . . .:thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny :thatfunny
moe7404
05-05-2009, 04:16 PM
moe in wichita ks i found a web site about airplains, this expert. said the the reason airplaine engines rust on the inside, is cause the engine isnt getted started enough. he said the the common way is to turn the engine over bay hand. he said that that doesnt through oil to the top parts of the engine, he said it should be started it once every a week or two. i am not sure of the site, i think the name of the artical was somthing like "the 10 lies about aircraft engines", or something like that.
