How to properly store a car for a year?

[Crazy Canuk]

Hello all,

As some of you may remember my car spun a bearing just before Christmas and I have been thinking of what I should do with it ever since.

At the moment it is sitting in my parking spot outside of my apartment and I have decided to hold onto my car, take the bus and save up, so I can fix it in around a years time. It sucks but it is the smartest thing to do so I don't put myself into to much debt.

My question is how to properly store my car so I wont ruin the car or the tires/rims? I don't want to turn the car on again and risk throwing a rod and at the moment it is outside but there is a posibility I could store it in my sisters garage in a month or so.

I have expensive tires on it now and I think if I let it sit in one spot for a year they will loose there shape and perhaps ruin them? Could that happen if it sits for 2 months? Since I am going to need to rebuild the engine I don't have to worry about that.

Also if I am to block it up how do I do that? There is a post on the forum on how to put your car on stands but I think for the time period blocks would be better if I am to keep it elevated because my sister has a little child and I want to limit the possibility of a accident.

Thanks again for your help, as for my plans for my car....still learning and doing research but the 383 lt1 long block from golen engine services sure looks nice!

Once I have more info, money and it's closer to the time to build up/replacement of the engine I will start asking some detailed questions about what parts and set ups are good but I don't want to get ahead of myself. It's going to be a long year

[ConElite]

As for the tires My guess would be to take them off,Drop the pressure to about 10-15 PSI and then just stack them. My brothers tires have been stacked for about a year now and they're fine. They are expensive tires too. As for the car I dont see why a couple of High quality Jack stands wont do the trick. If your going to Drop the engine from the bottom your going to have to Jack the Front way up and Remove the Rear tires and Lower the rear way down. Once you remove the engine and Trans, For the time being that your rebuilding the engine, I'd recommend lowing the front Back down to be safe for the kids. Thats not a factor for us at our house so we Left it all Up in the air. If you want anymore pointers on taking out the engine let me know. I still kinda have it Pretty clear in my head since we dropped my brothers (AmericanZ28) engine about a year ago.

[Crazy Canuk]

I know my abilities and if I am going to replace or fix the engine and spend that kind of cash, I want someone who knows what there doing to take out and install the engine, and thats not me

I was thinking that blocks (wood or cinderblocks) would be beter the jacks because they are more robust, however jacks on the lowest hight prob would be just as safe. Is there anything else I should be doing to the car?

The more research I am doing on the cost of this forced build (car is forcing the issue) the more it makes me sad

Last night I looked at Goden engines and they raised the prices of there long blocks by 300us yay me

[ConElite]

ha ha ha. Yeah In the Rear we had to Use Big wood blocks. You can use them in the rear. So Are you going to Drop the engine yourself and have someone Build it for you? My Brother nor I have ever Dropped an engine But We were able to do it which is not bad for a 23 and 20 year old. My Father is the man with all the Know how. We Broke everything down to the bare block now we just need to have it bored and redecked. Then Hello New K-member and New 383 Forged Stroker. So yeah when you use the wood blocks in the rear notch them so the axle fits nice and snug. I'f You'd like any pictures let me know.

[Crazy Canuk]

I plan on keeping my car assembled for around a year so I can save up for most or all of the cost that the build will cost. Then take it to a local engine builder for him to pull the engine and either build or put in a new engine. It will cost more but it should be done right then.

I have had nothing but bad luck with my car even though I knew the history of the car (and it was taken well care of for all of its life). I just can't get over the fact that with only 80k miles on the engine I spun a bearing.

[ConElite]

How do you know it was well taken care of? Who did you buy it off of? Thats what I said about mine and the Rearend bearings were gone and the clucth was gone, And it only had 52k on it. So you never know how hard that car gained those 80+k. So your going to have someone do the work? OUch thats going to cost a pretty penny, Good luck.