Done for the season

Well...I was able to enjoy my Speedster for a few months before the cold set in the Chicago area. It will be sleeping in my garage for the next five months (at least). What should I do in the meantim? For example, cover it up and forget about it??? Start her up every three or four weeks??? I'm not sure. Remove gas??? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

Here's the procedure. wash and wax your car and when you've finished the storage preparations cover it with a good car cover.

Raise the car and put it on jackstands. Inflate the tires to their recommended pressure, drain the oil and refill.

Drain the fuel from the carb's. Remove the battery and place it on a battery tender
IF you don't have gas in the tank, it could rust so, add StaBil to the gasoline per their recommendations.

Some people like to rotate the engine to avoid the valve springs from developing a memory but it's not necessary if you're only storing it for the winter.

Depending on where you live, guard against critters making a nest inside your car. If the humidity gets real low, I'd suggest you keep a bucket of water inside the car to prevent everything from drying out.

Next year, change oil before you start the car. Remove the spark plugs and crak the engine until oil pressure registers on your gauge.
Re-install spark plugs. Fill with fresh gasoline. Re-install battery, check air pressure, lower car, drive car.

To simplify this procedure, move to Arizona

...or let Nolan garage it in Florida for you while you wait out the winter. I'm sure he'll take REAL GOOD care of it while he waits for his own Speedy to be delivered!!

out of curiousity, what do you mean by crak the engine?

I feel for you guys in the cold. I don't have a convertible top on my baby and I will be driving her thru the winter months. Hooray for California. BTW I reglassed the dash so it will be back to the classic look instead to the typical CMC look!

Crak engine...it was sooo cold he couldn't get the R out to say .......cRank!

Jimbo is right, my garage is empty and at the rate SAW is going it will be until winter's over (in your area).

Nathan, CRAK the engine is a result of my brain working faster than my fingers and my lack of editing skills.

Alan was correct, it's CRANK the engine

sorry for the confusion

Fuel stabilizer, remove battery and if you can put the car up on stands keeping the rubber on the ground taking some weight off the frame.

Springtime, change oil, remove middle wire on distributor and crank the engine over to lube. Push outside and put back the wire and crank it up.

Do not start every month in the winter, the car will not have enough time to do anything beneficial.

My dos centamos from a guy that has about 5 months of dead time per year (winter)

Now I've heard it all, a Quebecian posting Spanish "Dos centavos" or were you refering to Bill Gate's next operating system?

The old traditional way-Pinch the rubber fuel line off with a clamp. Run the car to the fuel out of the carbs. Remove the air cleaners and disconnect the coil wire and spray engine fog down the carbs while some one is cranking the engine over. Keep the fuel line pinched. If the car is stored in a cold garage fill the fuel tank up with good gasoline and stabil if you like . Gasoline these days contains ethanol, it will absorb the condensation/water . An empty tank that is not internally coated will rust. Disconnect the battery and store in a warm area. A trickle charger is a nice item to have for battery storage.

Joe

How about "fogging" the engine? I used to do this with my Harleys when I lived in IL. Where I live live now, it's not really an issue.

Does anyone in Chicago really do all of this for a car in storage for 6 months?

Cars are not that fragile.

If you want to do something put a cloth cover over it, maybe jack it up so the tires dont get flat spots. Leave about a 1/8 of a tank of gas so you can start it once a month. Take the plug off the dizzy (so you can build up the oil pressure) before you start it. Other than that a 6month rest period is not going to kill it. This is Chicago not Siberia.

By the way, hello Tim

Bryan

bt,
You're right, 6 months isn't a long time but for maximum engine and component longevitity several things "should" be done to prepare the car for winter.

This information is just the standard procudures used by many people that live in colder climates and store their cars for the winter.

Starting your car once a month is OK but the problem is that the oil doesn't get hot enough and the monthly starts "can" contaminate the oil and cause it to become corrosive.

Additionally, someone asked about fogging the engine. Fogging oil is sold in many auto parts stores mainly in colder climate area's.

It's an anti corrosive spray oil that protects the inside and outside surfaces of your carb's and the internal cylinder walls (via spraying the oil into the spark plug holes.

Personally, I don't recommend rotating the engine to bring up oil pressure with the spark plugs installed.

When you crank your engine with the plugs installed,(especially after the engine has been idle for several months) you're loading the bearings due to the engine compression thus causing abnormal bearing wear. With the plugs removed, the engine turns freely and causes quite a bit less damage.

These are only suggestions and many people have "their own" way of winterizing their car's and engines.

As a final thought, tire manufacturers recommend that you inflate your tires to their maximum side wall listed pressure if you're unable to raise the car. (reset pressure in the spring)

I've been told that "Bounce" brand Clothes dryer fabric fresheners help to prevent rodents from moving in during the storage months.