Storage (long)

["David Swingle" <dswingle@xxxx>]

Not trying to start (or continue) an argument, but. . .

I sense the storage thread coming up for its annual appearance on the list.
A good thing IMHO. In fact this year it seems a little late. The good
weather held out longer I guess. Here are some more thoughts on this to get
you thinking about it. In some cases this is kind of like arguing religion,
fishing lures, or brand of motor oil. As WTW said, storing a car for a fem
months is different than storing it for 10 years. If you are driving the car
periodically (weekly), trips of at least 10 miles or so, none of this
matters. That is not considered storage.

Raising the car on jackstands:
PRO - better for the tires, and possibly the shocks (less pressure being
held, these are gas shocks) but see comment on shock bushings.
CON - You have the suspension bushings in a "twist" mode for a long time. If
the suspension was assembled properly, the bushings are set for "no twist"
with the car on the ground. Also take a look at the upper bushing on the
shock absorbers with car jacked up sometime.
COMPROMISES - take the tires off the car, set in on blocks on the ground so
that the suspension is compressed. Way too much work IMHO. Another
recommendation I have heard is to park the car with the tires on wood
strips, although I can't recall why this was supposed to be better than
concrete. Rolling the car back and forth every few weeks is probably a good
idea if you have the room and access to the car. Also running the tire
pressure up to or slightly over the max will eliminate some of the
flat-spotting as well.

EMPTY FUEL:
PRO - Less "old" fuel to run thru in the spring. The Fuel Pump boot and
other rubber parts seem to fall apart faster if constantly immersed in stale
fuel.
CON - Condensation - this should not be a big deal in a car with a plasic
fuel tank (like the DMC).
OTHER - Stabilizer (Sta-Bil) is probably a good idea, although in my
experience my car came back to life eaiser in the years where I didn't
bother with it. (I store my car from 11/1 to about 3/15). In the spring,
dump in 5 gallons of new fuel and get to the gas station first time out. A
nice feature of the DMC fuel system is that it constantly circulates fuel,
so new/old is very quickly and very thouroghly mixed.

PERIODIC STARTING:
PRO - Gets the fluids circulated
CON - Never runs the engine under load, parts such as the transmission will
never reach operating temp without driving the car. Running it in place at
idle 10 minutes once a month is probably worse than not running it at all.
You'll end up with a muffler full of water, among other things.

HEATED/UNHEATED GARAGE:
Heated is nice if you can afford it, primary benefit is humidity control. If
it is in a heated garage where there are two other snowy/salty cars being
driven in and out of the same garage, this is probably negated. In general,
things are preserved better in the cold. The only real drawback to unheated
space is that you get condensation on days where it suddenly warms up. You
can fight this by keeping a small fan running under the car. The CarCoon is
an example of this. That is a great solution too, again if you have the $$$$
and the space.

BATTERY:
Never put a charger on the battery while leaving the battery connected to
the car for any length of time. Electrolytic action will eventually dissolve
key parts of the cooling system and engine. This effect has been observed by
the DMC service places as actual removal of material from the engine block.

It is OK as long as you disconnect the battery from the car. Best thing is
to remove the battery and keep it on a Battery Tender or such, indoors. That
way if the charger malfunctions and overcharges the battery, you don't get
acid eating up the carpet. I am not fond of the idea of acid fumes
circulating in a closed car all winter as the battery is charged.

DOORS:
Hers's one no one says much about. The absolute best thing to do with the
DeLorean in this area would be to store the car with the doors OPEN. This
releases most of the tension from the torsion bar, releases the tension from
the door struts, and releases the tension from the door seals. Of course NO
ONE does this, although I have heard of people removing the struts. This is
another one of those "how anal do you want to be?" questions. And leaving
the doors open is an invitation to other problems, such as critter (or
child) infestation. Removing the struts and/or releasing tension on the
torsion bars presents their own risks. Probably overall best to keep the
door shut and not think about it. Sorry for thinking about it.

OTHER:
Periodic fluid replacement is one of the best things that you can do for
your car, storage or not. Change the brake fluid, clutch fluid, and coolant
at least every other year. Every year is even better. (There are other
discussions regarding long-term coolant and silicone brake fluid - I'm
assuming conventional). Don't forget the transmission oil, and if you have
an automatic remember that the transmission fluid (ATF) and differential oil
(90W) are two separate systems.
=======================================

Good luck, and please trim reply quotes. People will not want to read this 8
more times.

Dave Swingle ===>Car now in storage off-site in a semi-heated garage with a
bunch of Harleys and a mean pit bull. And an empty fuel tank.