Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,
I have finally removed my original engine, ready to fit the new much faster engine What do i need to do to store the engine? i would like to keep it in the best condition possible so any advice is welcomed.
Thanks
Martyn

The bores will be open to the inlet (or exhaust) ports so even if you store in out of the rain, moisture in the air will give you corroded bores.
Therefore you want to coat the bores with oil (eg squirt some down the spark plug holes and turn it over a lot). Then you can put the plugs back in and to do the belt and braces job, you can remove the rocker gear closing the valves to help stop dirt, spiders, and damp getting in.
Other than that, I wouldn't worry. I have used engines that have stood for over a decade without much hassle so they don't tend to be problematic.

If you are leaving the clutch on the engine, then free the clutch off before putting the engine back in the car (or better still leave the clutch assembly loose on its bolts to prevent it seizing up)

Hi, I block the ports with old plastic bags and do as Ray advised. I would keep a starting handle handy though so you can go and turn the engine over once a week and squirt a little fresh oil in the bores through the spark plug holes before this just to be sure, saves taking off the rockers and keeps everything moving.

Before storage, I would drain the old oil hot and fill up with new. Sometimes after years of storage the oil in the oil pump can solidify so I always take it out and give it a clean if the oil was old.

When you fire it up after storage, crank the engine with the plugs out to build up oil pressure and then change the oil and filter after an hour or so of running to be sure any sludge is gone.

On my VW air cooled race engines, (sorry!), I have them set up on a home made test rig and fire them every month or so until they are warm and change the oil every 6 months, paranoia maybe but then they do cost rather a lot of money...

As Ray said, you can leave them for years if you look after them, 5 mins every week is nothing really and will mean no trouble if you need that spare engine!

On my VW air cooled race engines, (sorry!), I have them set up on a home made test rig and fire them every month or so until they are warm

Hmmm fireing them sounds good to me