btv38

Hello all....this is my first NJ winter with my 1985 928 S.....I plan on puttin' on the 'ol cover and garaging her by the middle of this month. Any tips on storage? Like how much gas to leave in tank/should i remove battery/windows up or down under cover? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I like to have a smooth a Spring unveiling as possible. Thanks.

WyattsRide

Wash and Wax and clean interior
Fill the tank and add Sta-bil
Battery Tender or remove battery
Up on Lift Bars
Moth ***** under the car and in the engine bay
Cover it
Don't start until ready to drive (remove Moth *****)

btv38

Thanks for the advice Rick! I appreciate it.

Bertrand Daoust

Exactly as Rick said.

Maybe I'll skip the wax step but it's not that bad right now.

Need to do this soon too. Sad time of the year...

Wisconsin Joe

Up on liftbars (or blocks or jackstands) is debatable. The suspension does better on the ground, the tires do better in the air. I leave mine down.

What is your storage like? Inside? Heated? Vermin free?

I leave windows down a few inches, with the car under a cloth (breathable) cover.

I also like to plug the exhaust with a chunk of steel wool and I have "critter guards" over the intakes. I've had other cars end up with the air cleaner chewed up because something decided it was a nice place to spend the winter.

Full gas tank is a must. Stabilser of some sort is a good idea. I prefer SeaFoam myself, but YMMV.

Disconnect battery, a tender is a good idea.

I also pump the tires up a few extra pounds.

Jetdriver69

Drive her in south Texas and in the winter you just roll the windows down for the cool air.

Of course in summer it is worse than Africa hot and I have lived in Africa...

dr bob

Make sure your fluid services are up to date, particularly oil and coolant. Better to store with new fresh than to change them in the spring.

The shock seals don't like full extension but everything else does. The car can be on stands with blocks under the suspension to prevent full extension. Tires off the ground if at all possible.

Mothball bags on top of the air filter, in the ends of the intake valley on top of the engine, in front of the radiator, anywhere there are wires that might be eaten.

If you will store in a non-climate controlled area, put a small (25W?) light bulb or heater in the car and close it up. That will give just enough heat to avoid condensation and mold/mildew. Support the bulb so it doesn't damage or burn anything. You can add dessicant bags inside to help with this.

Planning on doing maintenance on the car over the winter? Put the car in its maintenance spot now if you can, so you can avoid starting the engine unnecessarily.

Battery disconnected, with access to a charge port from outside the car for a maintainer. If the car is stored in a freezing environment, consider storing the battery in a warmer safer place. Avoid placing the battery directly on a cold floor if you can. Maintainers are relatively inexpensive.

For longer-term storage there are more steps that include fogging cylinders via the spark-plug holes, and other preservation steps. Marine stores sell stuff that's good for winterizing boat mechanicals for instance. They may seem like overkill, but are in fact great for extended storage preservation. I have a few Lotus race engines pickled in kerosene inside, coated with marine preservative on the outside, packed in plastic with large dessicant bags. Some are almost 50 years old now, and still look as new mummified inside their plastic-bag cages. I've re-bagged them every ten years or so, since the plastic gets tired with age. It's probably time to do them again next time I'm back in SoCal. The rest of each car is "preserved" with a cosmoline-like wax coating, in crates with dessicant. Should be fine in the dry SoCal desert climate.

davek9

If you wash the car make sure you drive it and of blow dry to remove trapped water, also spraying some wd-40 on metal won't hurt either.

I like the 25 watt bulb idea, what happens when you can't get them, leds won't work

EMan 928

Please tell me more about this WD40 trick. I've never heard of this. Is it something you use?

dr bob

WD-40 is good for the first week or so. CRC makes some excellent spray-on preservatives. My favorite is 6-56, available from many of the Usual Sources like Amazon. Mrine engines are 'preserved in place' for the most part, so 6-56 is an ideal candidate for that duty. I buy gallons and use a dip-tube hand spray nozzle, coat everything that's exposed. Detergent and water will remove it when you are ready to go back in service. Meanwhile, it's great for fogging cylinders and manifolds too for storage. Plugs come out, fog trough the holes, rotate one revolution by hand and fog again. Plugs go in finger-tight, wires stay disconnected, ignition and fuel pump fuses come out as a reminder that there's a little housekeeping to do before restarting after storage.

davek9

I bathe in it

dr bob

There was a comparo a few years back looking at various common corrosion preventers for winterizing. Focused on the marine market, the products and their use meshes nicely with what car guys need. The WD-40, unfortunately, was way down the list. Sprayed on a plain steel plate, it allowed corrosion to start within a week in the test environment. The CRC lasted almost a season, so became my instant favorite product for the duty. The typical 928 storage environment is somewhere south of the marine test environment, but since the effort is the same you might as well use the Right Stuff. WD-40 runs off at pretty much the same speed regardless of the environment, the only difference seems to be how fast the corrosion attack starts after it's gone. In my limited experience, the CRC produc is better.

There were a few other competitive chems noted in the test, most with some pretty serious fragrance issues. Serious enough that they were moved off the candidate list anyway.

Koenig-Specials 928

To prevent square tires in the spring I go to HD, buy a 4x8 sheet of 1 1/2" thick styrofoam (comes in pink or blue), cut four large pieces to rest each wheel on. By springtime, the tires would have sunk into the foam and staying true round vs the tire flattening out since the concrete doesn't give.

My $0.02

9two8

.., agree, Iv,e used this method for a number of years now and it works well.

Ken
80 928 S
5 Speed

UK

Wisconsin Joe

Nice! Thanks.

The flat spots on the tires "round out" after a few miles, and it doesn't seem to do any permanent damage, but It'd be nice to not have to deal with it.