Hi,
It looks like my wife and I have a cross country move ahead of us. The big issue is there will be a 8 - 10 month gap before our new house is ready, resulting in
storage for our 2007 XK convertible. My questions are;
1- In a perfect world there would be hydro available in an inside storage unit to plug in a Ctek maintainer. If there is no hydro, what would be the
preferred strategy flor long term? Disconnect battery?
2- Is it feasible to store car as is, and just re-charge battery when by storage term is up? Will a Ctek even bring a battery back to life?
I am open to any suggestions...
Thanks

 

If you disconnect the battery, there will be no drains on it and provided it is a good battery, should last the duration. (mine has on a few occasions).
Of course, the alarm system won’t work and you’ll need to use the key to lock/unlock her.

In fact I don’t use a battery maintainer and keep the car unlocked in the garage. She regularly sits for 5 months. No issues.

 

How about just plan on a new battery in 8 months and not care what happens in terms of the battery? At least you'll have a new battery in 8 months.

 

I’d also be concerned about humidity and potential for mold/mildew growth, also fuel has a short shelf life, with ethanol 1-3 months and with out 3-6 months.

 

Expanding along this train of thought, I would tend towards disconnecting the battery for a more controlled discharge of capacitors and then fit a new, fully charged battery when you return in 8 months.

This is more of a hunch than sound science. However, given the frequent posts about issues with failing or partially discharged batteries, no volts is probably better than too few volts.

Graham

 

jahummer brings up a very valid point. Fill the tank with the freshest gas you can find and use Stabil or something similar to try to keep it fresh. I've found that Stabil does indeed actually work.

 

Hopefully whereever you are storing it is in a dry climate. High humidity is worse than hot or cold temps. Make sure you able to open the car door with the key.

 

Yep, put a couple bags of activated charcoal or something similar (baking soda?) inside the car to reduce moisture.

 

+1 on fresh fuel and Stabil. Maybe you can remove the battery and leave it with a friend near the storage location so it could be connected to a battery maintainer for the duration.
I would also worry about rodents setting up shop. Maybe load the car up with dryer sheets and peppermint oil sachets around the wheels.

 

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions/ideas. I will advise what path is chosen when the time comes.

 

Regarding fuel - I fill to the brim and add STABIL 1 MARINE - its like Stabil 1 on steroids - been using it for years on all my motorbikes with zero issues. I would personally aim to get the car started some time within 6 months only to get the oil around the vulnerable parts - just turned on the key without starting or 20 secs or so - there is a way to do it, can't remember how

 

The starting action is the most wear-producing part of an engine. Why would you do that on purpose? What vulnerable parts are there that needs an oil bath while not moving for extended periods?

The No-Start thing has something to do with holding the accelerator pedal to the floor when you push the Start. I still don't see why anyone would do this unless troubleshooting some problem.

 

sounds like it would be a special procedure that allows you to crank to circulate oil and/or build oil pressure without dumping fuel in the cylinders, which washes the oil off the rings and cylinder walls and completely defeats the purpose with respect to long-term storage.

 

Starting is not an issue unless you feel the need to thrash the crap out of the engine before its warm. Fuel past the pistons burns out after a few miles, and regular oil changes keep the car with good oil.

When you start an engine that is dry you run into a raft of problems. Oil moves, so it doesn't stay in the places you left it or need it and you can end up with dry cams, bores, bearings etc. The problem with start up is the speed the engine is turning while moving parts are dry vs the time taken to circulate the oil around to the pressure needed for that rpm. When you build an engine there are oils you can coat these things in without it coming off to prevent issues while the oil is getting itself pumped around the engine.

Cranking speed doesn't need the level of pressure or generate the amount of heat as tick-over speed...unless there's something about Jag engines that makes them different.

i would also add moving the car within that time to avoid other issues - dry bearing surfaces, brakes seizing and tyre flat spots.
I once had a wheel bearing go just because of storage, bike had only done 5000 miles from new - one dry spot rusting and the whole bearing ends up as scrap, rotation of course keeps everything greased.
Just a 3 point turn will do a lot to mitigate these problems. When storing my friends sportscar for 6 months I just drove it out the garage, turned it round and drove it back in. It was running for about 5 minutes, and in doing this everything was moving

 

I see zero reasons whatsoever to give 'parts' a little bit of oil that will immediately drip dry again in an hour anyway. What benefit does it provide? Peace of mind? Fine, I'll agree that it doesn't cause EXCESS starting damage, but still.............. WHY??? Do it because it DOESN'T cause damage???
How about time, effort, battery drainage???
No, sorry, I can't think of one possible positive effect of doing this, ever.

 

Then you haven't seen the damage it causes first hand...I have. There's a reason none of my non-racing engines have ever had any wear of anything - and its all linked to oil - and on vehicles that probably do less than a hundred miles a year. I'd rather abuse a battery than an engine, no contest, but that's just me. Won't drip dry in an hour, more like up to 6 months. However...each to their own.

I have to do my own work on the engines I preserve, and that's probably the difference

This is what the inside of a 20 yr old engine looks like with a decent mileage when the iconsition and distribution of oil is your priority

 

I build and race full-on race engines. ..... but that's just me.
I have engines in storage for multiple years sometimes. Do I take them out and crank them just to put oil through the passages? No. No I don't. There is zero sense to creating friction when there is no reason.
You say...... go cause rings to scrape cylinder walls every six months so oil pressure can pump the passages and coat the bearings, which are also dry? You won't have enough splash from the crank to coat the cylinders, thereby every ring on every piston ssssccccrrrraaapppppeeeessssss for however long you crank for oil passages. Every. Six. Months. That's excruciatingly bad. Horribly bad.
This causes me distress... WHY do this? Is there an actual reason to it??? Does having a 'dry' bearing or friction surface make you sad? . . . Creating oil pressure and also ring wear. YAY!

I'm sorry, but cranking an engine in storage is about the stupidest thing a person could do.

 

I think you're just looking for an argument...knock yourself out

 

hmm i didn't know this, and i would have guessed otherwise. good to know.

i've still shamelessly subjected a naturally aspirated four-pot to cranking with no spark, but only after waking it up, not during storage. and then immediately ran it normally, since i was then sure it wasn't seized.

i think we can all agree in this scenario that fuel washes the cylinders on the compression stroke. the valves are closed. it does not end up as spittle in the exhaust until the next stroke. i cannot see it simply escaping harmlessly with no consequences.

unless i am missing something, if you do this repeatedly while in storage without ever running the vehicle, you will have fuel in the oil pan, oil will drip back down from the top end after a week or so anyway, and each time you turn it over the well-washed rings will scrape and whatever oil you do pump back up will be thinner. at least the injectors won't gum up, hey?

 

No one has suggested to do this repeatedly. Your first point about cranking pre-sparking is the way I go about it, then fire. Once the oil is hot enough on running fuel burns out of it - when I fire up I get the crankcases hot.
Injectors being kept clean - Stabil 1 Marine does that for you, stops it gumming up. The pilot jets on my motorbikes are fine regardless of how long they are left.