Longer-term storage

[Panoguy]

Hope someone can help me out - I put my boat to bed last fall, by running the engine till warm, then spraying engine fog into the carb for a bit, careful not to stall it for a while, then finally stalling it with the fogger, I then I drained it, pulled hoses, & pulled the battery.

I may not be able to work on my boat this summer (dammit!), my "battle of the back" is coming to a head, with a multiple level lumbar fusion early next month, I just want to know if I should do more to assure my engine will be alright, if I can't run it this summer.

Should it be good for another year, or should I pull plugs and spray fogger (or oil) into the cylinders... perhaps turn it over with the plugs out?

What would you do?

Thanks for the advice in-advance!

 

[Lightwin 3]

You're fine. If you run it, you have to start the process all over.

Did you treat the fuel?

 

[Panoguy]

The boat is under restoration, I only had a 2.5-gal. gas can (with no ethanol premium gas) hooked to it. I did treat the gas in the can with Sta-bil... so the H2O separator/carb bowls... the engine fuel system has treated gas. The engine only has about 1.5 Hrs on it.

According to the Sta-Bil bottle, treated gas is only good for 1 year, which kinda-spooks-me-out, but I'm most worried about cylinders seizing-up on me (before I even get the engine thru a decent break-in period!).

Is this a valid worry?

 

[briangcc]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I put my car away the fall of '11 with treated fuel. Started it in '16 when I moved it to my new house. Granted, didn't run great on the stored gas but it did run. Worst case, you're looking at a carb clean/rebuild.

Depending on the engine, you could squirt a little oil down the spark plug holes and turn the engine over manually to lube the rings before powering it up. You'll foul a set of plugs doing this but your rings and cylinder walls will be lubed.