It is said that the most wear on an engine occurs in the first minutes of operation, and cold starts are the worst. Some of that is mitigated by using winter grades of oil, but cylinder washing from using the choke on older engine systems is part of the concern. As such, I would just as soon park them in the fall, and not bother them again until spring.
I have a half dozen or more running engines at home, and another 20 or so here at work that I look after. None of them seem to mind being parked for the 6 months of extreme cold that we experience here in Manitoba.
This summer, I dragged over a M577A2 which had been parked outside since it left the service around 2007. I was preparing it for a backdrop on one of the unit's parades. After cleaning it up and painting it, and just before towing it over to the unit, I hooked a slave cable to it to see if it would still run. I expected to crank it for a bit, but it surprised me by firing on the first crank....this was after over 10 years parked. Next summer I'll go a little further on it and add it to the running fleet here at the museum.
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