Extended Short Term Storage

[Lawn Dart]

HIAI= Hydraulically Induced Artificial Intelligence. If you?re a beer drinker, you know what it means? If you?re not, it?s a phenomenon that occurs to people that are under the influence of alcohol where they are certain that they are smarter then an aluminum can. :drinking:
It seems that my old jalopy spends more time down for repairs then it does flying. I?ve been down for about 6 weeks now (was supposed to be about 2 weeks) and it looks like it?ll be another 3-4 weeks before she?s ready to fly again. During these ?rest times? I?ll pull the prop through one quarter turn about once a week. My thinking is that no part gets to sit in one place for very long.

Today I was suffering from HIAI and decided to fire it up and run it for about 20 minutes. My thought was to heat up and circulate the oil and knock off anything that is trying to stick to the metal inereds. I understand that 20 minutes on the ground isn?t enough time to burn off condensation and acid in the oil and it?s not the same as flying it for an hour (which I can?t do right now) but my question is? by doing this, am I helping or hurting the motor?

[S2D]

In my opinion that is the absolute worst thing you can do to an engine. Leaving it alone is best. I even have some misgivings about turning it by hand. that will scrape oil off . An option (abiet one I don't use) would be to pull the plugs and spin the prop with starter until oil pressure builds up.
then do it a little longer. In our dry area we just leave it alone.
Had a Cherokee 180 on the field when I first came here that the owner would go out and run the engine in the winter about every month. When I went to top it a couple years later, it had the worst case of corrosion on internal parts that I have ever seen in an engine.

[StewartB]

Ditto. Either pickle it or don't touch it.
SB

[Lawn Dart]

How long is long enough to justify pickling the motor?

[cruiser]

30 days

[StewartB]

Anybody heard of this one? I bought a plane several years ago from a guy that had a simple pickling method. Instead of using the storage-grade crankcase oil, and the whole fly it for a half-hour routine, he'd just fill the crankcase to the top of the filler with the same type oil he flew with. His idea was that if the internal parts are submerged, they won't rust. Comments?
SB

[S2D]

sounds good to me. if the dipstick is high enough to cover the cam, you got it made. Seems that is what will rust first. would be fun to drain that thing when you got ready to fly. Just wonder how much would start leaking out past the quides, breather etc. rings then into cyl, out the open exhaust valve and all over the floor or the intake valve thru the carb etc!!. How about you try it sometime and tell me how it worked!! wonder how much oil that would take. :o

[FlipFlop]

sounds good to me. if the dipstick is high enough to cover the cam, you got it made. Seems that is what will rust first. would be fun to drain that thing when you got ready to fly. Just wonder how much would start leaking out past the quides, breather etc. rings then into cyl, out the open exhaust valve and all over the floor or the intake valve thru the carb etc!!. How about you try it sometime and tell me how it worked!! wonder how much oil that would take. :o

And it will fill the mags and tach drive shaft...

[T.J.]

delete

[FlipFlop]

Mags and tach drive both have an oil seal which should prevent oil from entering either one. Thats assuming they are in good condition.

And T.J., what did your Mom tell you happens when you ASSUME?...