I have a '63 425 thats has been sitting in the shop for about a month and I want to turn the crank to keep it from seizing up. My question is should I turn the crank clock wise or counter clock wise, about how many times, and about how often.
I have a "good" motor that has been sitting a while (3 years). It gets 2 1/4 clockwise turns a month. and there are a few drops of trans fluid in each cylinder. I do not have to back the rocker arms off, and the the springs will not take a set from lingering in one position this way. The ports and intake are sealed with tape, and the plugs are installed. I pull the plugs and turn it. Then the plugs are reinstalled for another month. Every thing looks good as far as I can see, and it is never stuck when I try to turn it........ Cheryl
Cheryl has it covered, but going to the other extreme, I've 'woke up' nails that have sat for a long with no prep at all-one a '65 cat that sat outside for 22 years-the engine/car is a great runner. Get some oil in the cylinders and turn it (clockwise) once in a while-
For a long time the same debate about the benefits of periodically turning an engine by hand during nonuse raged for aircraft piston engines. Many advocated the same techniques talked about here but finally the pros and cons were looked at in a scientific way as I recall by Teledyne Continental out of Mobile, Alabama. They along with Lycoming supply most of the horizontally opposed aircraft engines. It is really important to get the proper methode to preserve aircraft engines correct for aircraft engines as we are talking 20-50K depending on the engine for a reman. (Unless you are certified by the FAA, unlike autos, you are not permitted to rebuild you own engines.) The outcome of the investigation recomends not rotating the engine by hand periodically as doing so wipes the oil from the cylinder walls. Then the walls rust and the rings are later also damaged when they move over the rust. The preferred practice is to completely coat walls with a preservative in anticipation of storage. Specific preservatives are made at least for aircraft engines but as I recall they are used to thoroughly spray by a special procedure the cylinders until drained in anticipation of reuse. Here is the Teledyne Bulletin. Please note that turning by hand is the recommended procedure when taking the engine OUT OF STORAGE as it actually REMOVES the preservative from the cylinder walls. http://www.tcmlink.com/pdf2/SIL99-1.pdf
It sounds like I've been doing the right things and hopefully it wont be sitting to long. Thanks for the help.............
There's a lot of issues involved with the various engines and usage intervals. An aircraft is also often sitting on the ramp or a hangar for long periods-then it's cranked up and within a short time is asked to do it's hardest work at takeoff-kinda hairy. Many recreational engines have ball/roll/needle bearings rather than inserts. Some (generally 2 strokes) can have vary thin oil films at shutdown (that can be worsened with alcohol enriched fuels) and a rusting bearing is definately not a good thing. When you fill an engine/cylinders with oil it's about pickled!-and lube displaces damp air that would start things degrading-a good deal-but now you have a cumbersome/messy/time consuming process to get back in operation. It would seem to me that a system where a suitable lube (or fogging type oil) is introduced at shutdown. Enough to protect, but not so much that it's a big deal to get running again. I use the old (50+ years!) Ampco oilers (usually with Marvel oil) and will crank open the vacuum valve while running just before winter shutdown-coats everything up pretty well-
Hay-where's Joe Naab (nailheadina'67) these days? I just read that he was a winner at the Buick nats, but I've not seen his postings here in some time-
