Cold storage and starting

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Although I have no experience of storing an inactive car during winter 
conditions, I do have lots of experience with cold weather driving 
conditions. The major enemy for your stored engine is water vapour 
condensing in the oil. A side issue is gasoline condensing in the oil, but 
this evaporates readily, it is the water that requires quite a bit of heat 
to drive out of the crankcase. Water gets into an engine equipped with 
evaporative control ( fuel vapour recovery pollution control) mainly by 
temperature cycling in the crankcase. Running the car until the OIL gets 
hot enough to boil off any condensation is essential.

  So, as the engine gets warmer due to ambient temperature rising, it 
pushes some air out of the crankcase, as it cools it draws air in which, as 
it continues to cool, causes water vapour to condense into liquid water 
which sinks to the bottom of the crankcase. Water accumulates under the oil 
due to this temperature cycling. Starting the engine and running it for a 
short time makes this worse. Idling an engine to warm it up is also not a 
good idea. If you intend to start it then you should drive it until the oil 
is hot. Otherwise the engine will thank you for leaving it  switched off 
and treating it to a fresh oil change before you restart in Spring.

IMHO anyway.
Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
91 Alfa 164L, White, original owner

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