Pickled Engine

To All:

I'm not too sure why this topic gets raised every year about this
time. Even if you're snowed in you should be able to get out to the
airport once a month or so to fire-up the Dream Machine and let her
warm up. (Here in
Sandy Eggo we don't have that problem.)

But a couple of messages on the topic of pickling an engine DOES flop
into my in-basket about this time every year. Sometimes it's about a
Lync or Continental but lotsa VW owners too.

'Nother common message is about making dryer plugs for the VW, even
though ASS Co. sellzum. So lemma back into the topic by dealing with
the VW's first.

First off, 'pickled' typically means the engine is NOT IN SERVICE.
It's not mounted in an airframe. Its accessories have been removed
and baggied. An' seeing as how it's an OTTO CYCLE engine, that means
when it stops it's got AT LEAST two jugs open to the atmosphere... and
could have all four, depending on your cam. So the term 'pickling'
ends up being both generic and specific. You decide which matches
your situation.

Secondly, I mentioned, oh, I donno... a million times or so, that YOU
can make your own drier plugs. To replace your sparking plugs. You
simply turn (as, with a lathe) or grind (as with a grinder) the little
rim of metal that's folded over to hold the porcelain insulator in
place then punch it out. That leaves you with a BARREL threaded to
match your spark plug holes in your heads. Make four (or more) of
them.

Now put it in your pocket and go down to the hardware store, Borg or
whatever and find some CLEAR plastic tubing that's a good fit for the
barrel. Then find a plug or cap that matches the other end. You want
about FOUR inches of clear plastic tubing for each barrel, and as many
plugs/caps as you've got tubing/barrels.

See that little hole in your barrel? The one that opened into the
combustion chamber.... and where the ceramic insulator usta fit?
Stuff a twist of fiberglas down there. You want something that will
ALLOW the air to pass back & forth but you need to keep the desiccant
from falling out that hole.

That's it. That's all you gotta do. What? Oh, yeah. Buy a couple
pounds of desiccant and pour some into each of the plastic tubes...
the ones you've glue to your barrells. Now seal it up with a cap.

What? Are you sure? (Real hardware stores usta carry desiccant...)
Okay, so go to Harbor Freight. Item #97924-0VGA (that's a zero, by
the way). $5 will get you two pounds. I think the stuff I've got
starts out blue and turns pink... or mebbe it's the other way
'round. OR... you can slice up some Gypsum wall-board, dry it really
good in the oven, and use that. (Just make sure it's gypsum and not
Portland cement or some other mineral-stuff used for wall-board. And
don't buy it, fer crysakes... go dumpster-diving.)

Properly pickled, everything comes OFF the engine. Carb, mags,
anything driven by a belt or chain.. All openings into the engine...
ALL OPENINGS... get sealed up. The spark plugs get removed and stored
away especially if they're the high-priced three-electrode jobbies
from Germany (they NEVER seem to wear out! [But you need that tricky
little tool to set the gap.])

Sealed up. Air tight.

REAL pickling, like the Navy did to freshly overhauled engines at
North Island, went into a can that got filled with dry nitrogen. No
oxygen means no corrosion. Combustion chambers were sprayed with
special 'pickling oill' (on the can, it said something about
'preservation oil'... Check the ASS Co catalog; they prolly got it.)

Good for 60 months, which is almost five years. I've known the method
I've just described to keep an engine sweet for 30 months. Prolly
longer but he had the money and I had the engine...

Pickle an engine, stuff starts to disappear. Seriiously! Soon as you
put it on its scooter and slide it under the bench, or put it up on
the shelf out in one of the sheds, all those things that should be
stored with it, from its log book to its ignition harness, starts to
vanish! Damnest thing. So don't that happen. Bag everything, WITH a
slug of desiccant (put some in a CLEAR pill bottle, punch holes in
it). Then put all the little bags into a big baggie, the kind with
the zip-lock. Inside, put an inventory list.

Yeah, I know why the stuff vanishes too. And I end up with yellow
Stickum's growing around the video screen like an alien fungoid. But
at least I TRY :-)

So I guess it's that time of year again.

-Bob