Nate-03 D

Dunno if this question is in the right section or not.

My tranny blew about a month ago. I won't have the money together to get it built until after this winter. My truck is going to be sitting in my shop for a minimum of 6 months.

What are some good prolonged storage tips? My shop is only going to be heated when I have the wood stove burning. I'm going to be putting the truck on jack stands to keep the tires off the ground. Anything else I should be doing?

Also, from talking to Dave Goerand, I snapped my input shaft. Is it safe to run the engine every now and then for a little while to keep fluids circulating throughout the engine, should I just leave it in neutral and let the motor run until it's hot?

Thanks.

Mexstan

Generally speaking it is always bad to just run an engine until it gets warm. Reason: acids build up in the oil and are not burned off. It takes at least 10 minutes of running AFTER the engine reaches operating temperature for the acids to burn off.

It it were my truck here is what I would do. Go and buy a pint or even a quart of that special oil to preserve the inside of engines. Sorry, it is Sunday and my brain is not working so forget the name of that stuff. Think most auto stores sell it or boating places. Then I would just run it until gets warm, then change the oil and filter. Run it for a minute after that just to circulate the new oil. Remove the intake and slowly dribble some of that preservative into the intake until the exhaust starts to smoke. Be very careful not to dump a whole lot in at the same time or you can cause damage. Once it is smoking a lot, stop the engine and reinstall the intake. After that DO NOT start the engine until you are ready to take it on the road, but once in a while bump the starter just to position the rings in a different spot. Disconnect the battery. If it gets a lot below freezing take the battery to a warmer place, but do not store it on bare concrete. Place some wood under it first.

Nate-03 D

Thanks Mexstan. I only have about 700 miles on my current oil change, changed it right before my tranny let go. Hate to change it that early but if I have to I have to. Went to turn the key on a couple of days ago and the batteries are already completely dead. They are rounding 8 years old now, guess i'll have to get them replaced as well.

If I can find out a solid answer on running the truck in say neutral with a snapped shaft without causing any more damage i'll just fire up the truck and let it run for a hour or two in the shop on high idle.