I'm going to flight school pretty soon and will not be able to bring my FD with me. Instead, I'm going to store it at my in-laws house under a car port. You guys think everything will be ok with it in about two years? I just replaced all the bushings, suspension, and exhaust.

 

Flight School, eh?

Where at?

If anything, I would ask your in-laws to start up the car every now and then, let it idle and warm up, maybe rev it up a little....and see if you can even get someone over there to drive it once n' a while, run a few tanks of gas through it, etc..

I speak from experience when I say that leaving a tank of gas in an FD for even ~6 months and then driving it can be dangerous...Be careful.

 

I stored my FC on and off for 3 years. It was fine for the first year, being started only once every 6 months. I couldn't trust anyone else to start it because they would just flood the motor or not let it warm up, etc. I had nobody I could trust explicitly to not tell their friends about it so it wouldn't get stolen, or someone who wouldn't drive it and crash it, etc. So I had the only key and the car was WAY out of town in a mini-storage.

After the first year it started to have issues. It flooded really bad when I was trying to start it and even after deflooding I had to use the ATF trick to get it to start. It started smoking, smoke in the exhaust, coolant leak. I had a few small unknown oil leaks. Just small problems that never happened before. All the brake fluid leaked out so I had to get new brake fluid etc.

At the end of the three years it finally just gave out. I hadn't started it in over a year but I changed all the fluids, tires, etc. It acted like it hadn't started in 20 years and I had to go through several batteries and it took hours to start. I thought I was going to burn out the starter motor. When it finally did start it lacked power, was leaking oil real bad out the rear main seal, I popped a coolant line first time I opened it up on the highway.

For the next week it just didn't want to start, ever and I couldn't figure out what the issue was. I could roll start it just fine, so that's what I did. I parked at the top of a hill and just rolled down to start it. One night I had a massive backfire when trying to key start it and it literally exploded the intake manifold and split the exhaust pipes down the middle. Mufflers in pieces etc. It was so loud I'm surprised it didn't kill me. After that it still wasn't dead! It would run, but it had so little power that I had to redline it to merge onto the highway.

Anyway the moral of the story is your seals will absolutely die and require a rebuild if you don't start it more often than once a year. If you only start it once every 6 months you'll have issues too. So at least once a month of every two weeks start and drive. But I hope you can find someone you trust to do that. And if there is ever an issue like a flood or dead battery they have to know how to fix it.

The other solution is to put it in one of those museum tents. It has like an HVAC unit to keep the atmospheric conditions perfect so the paint and seals etc won't deteriorate. Then I would just fog the engine.

My problem was it was stored in a mini-store with no heating or climate control. The weather in that situation got to it I'm pretty sure.

 

Yea it's a problem. I think the car has to be started up and warmed up to operating temp at least once a month. A drive around the block would definitely be beneficial. If you can't do this, I'll take your car off your hands.

 

I'm on the same boat, going to Japan for 2 maybe 3 years 6k on a Banzai rebuild & might consider selling myself (the wife doesn't drive stick & I don't trust anyone else to maintain it)

 

And if you put it outside make sure to mouse proof it. They hate moth ***** so throw them in the muffler, around air filter, rain tray, eveywhere as many as possible. On the inside you can use moth ball packets. They supposedly don't smell as bad so it won't mess up your interior but that's also the last place you want mice. So lock it down for sure.

 

www.carcapsule.com

I have one. It works.

Congrats on flight school. I am putting my packet in as soon as I get home in a few weeks. I am hoping my 144 afast, 134 gt, 98 asvab, and honor grad from ait will at least get me to the boards. My last board I got 25/25 from each evaluator, but they closed all the open slots after selection.

 

you'll need to stabilize the fuel. aside from that you are better off either not touching it at all until the time comes to take it out of storage or the better option is to have someone drive it about every other week for a full warmup cycle.

i stored my car for 2 years and had 0 issues taking it out and i never touched it in that period. others wind up having random things like clutch master cylinder failures, coolant hoses rupture, oil leaks develop, etc.

 

I guess this is what I will be doing & with only 6k miles on a rebuild I'll most likely get another just for the hell of it when I get back.

http://www.techguys.ca/howto/winter.html

 

Flight school at Fort Rucker, AL.

That might work but I dont really want them flooding it and just making things even worse. However, I recently found an article by aaroncake for storing an FC and it included using fogging oil for the engine so I'm thinking of giving that a shot.

Yea, that sucks about your car. I really have no choice and might just have to rebuild the engine, but like I mentioned above, I'm going to use fogging oil on the engine to make sure the internals get lubricated and sealed well then cross my fingers.

Great idea, I didnt think of that. That's funny because when I first got this car I had a huge mouse nest above the diff.

Nice scores! Those shouldnt hold you back. If anything you just need to make sure you get the other stuff like letters of rec and the flight physical taken care of. Good luck!

I was thinking of putting some fuel stablizer in the gas tank, but also just draining it after I get back and pick it up.

 

The fuel stabilizer worked for me on a full tank. I left the tank full and it was full when I came back after more than a year.

But one time I left it 3/4 full and it was empty when I came back after a year.

It's something to do with how they make Jack Daniels whiskey apparently When you leave an air pocket some of the fuel turns into vapor in that air and then during the warm part of the day it is pushed out through the evap system, then sucked back in during the cold part of the day. Do this 365 times and you get a dry tank! Jack Daniels use a charcoal fired barrel and the whiskey is pushed into the charcoal during the hot parts of the day, filtering it and adding flavor, and then it is drawn out during the night. But I think they do this for 8-10 years actually.

So anyway you don't want to add flavoring to your gasoline so just add the fuel stabilizer and top it off. I think you either want it dry as a bone, or full to the top, no in between.

The rotting rubber really sucks though. Apparently those "Car Capusles" work wonders to prevent it. But the more advanced models I have seen actually condition the air to keep it at a constant moisture and temperature level constantly. It's like what you have to do for a painting or document to keep it from crumbling. After 300 years these paintings would simply turn to dust if you were in the same room with a cup of steaming coffee.

 

doubtful, i bet someone siphoned your tank.

exception would be if the car is sitting in extreme heat which causes the fuel to vaporize more easily and the tank would have to be open to atmosphere.