Info needed: Engine Pre-Lube after storage

[Les Kovacs]

Hi Rob...I hear you...anything sitting for 6 months or less does not require a pre-lube and yes the Idea was to get the oil pressure up to pre-lube all parts before the first seasonal start......I assumed this would cut down on initial start wear. I do use Shell super with no alcohol (as per no alcohol in gas web site). I just do not want to have to rebuild this engine...I would like the best maintenance for this jeep and that includes oil changes every 500-700 kms (oil is cheap) with trans, transfer and axel oil changes every season (about 1500 miles or 2400 kms). Again, fluids are cheap-rebuilds are not. Any other suggestions to good M38A1 maintenance (outside of the military TM's) would be much appreciated.

Cheers to all for your input...

lesk

[rob love]

With oil changes that frequent, I suspect you will strip the oil plug holes before you suffer from any oil related failures.

Unless you are parking in the rain, or driving through deep deep water, the gear box oil changes are excessive. I would suggest the same thing on your engine, but neither is it good practice to leave old oil in for the winter season.

The Willys engines were only good for about 20,000 good miles, and another 15,000 lower compression miles. But a lot of the engine wear I saw over the years may have been due to poor air filtration over lubrication related failure. Scored cylinders were the norm.

Now you are not likely to be driving in as dusty a condition as the Jeeps were during their service, nor are you likely to be driving for 8 to 12 hour trips at 55 mph. Those were likely the true killers.

If there is one thing that I think would likely improve the life of the engine, I would say it would be to install a paper filter inside the oil bath housing and do away with the oil bath. If you are looking for evidence of which is more effective, have a look to see how many oil bath filters are produced today. Virtually none.

[chris vickery]

What’s wrong with starting your vehicle once a month instead of all this debate over pre lube, oil pressure etc?
I pretty much do this for all the equipment that I own, including everything from my chainsaws, lawn and garden equipment and military vehicles. Sure it looks strange running my push mower out in the snowy driveway but at least when spring comes I never have a problem.
And yes, keeping up with the use of premium non ethanol fuels is the key to success.

[rob love]

The problem with the once a month starts is that it eventually depletes the batteries. As well, if not run until operating temperature it can result in contamination of the oil.

When I was attached to army units, the infantry or artillery would theoretically start their vehicles once a week for stables parade. Understand that these are diesel vehicles, some with no additional source of heat. They could spend the better part of the day boosting and then running the vehicle for a half hour, then shutting it down at 3PM. There was no way the batteries were going to recharge, especially when they were at -15 to -35°C. Then we had the special soldiers who would crank the 5 ton until either the truck started or the solder would fly out of the starter windings. We mechanics would prefer if those guys just left them alone.

[chris vickery]

Devils advocate here, I run my stuff to temperature and also use battery tenders.

[rob love]

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.

[Dave Schindel]

I would agree with Rob. if it's only 6 months,park it and leave it alone til spring.Cold starts are hard on moving parts , the fewer cold starts the better.as for pre-lubing , I know some race engine builders/owners do that but those are high perf. engines with close tollerances and high stress loads. Not really necessary for what we work with.Just my .02cents. I've been an auto tech for over 35 yrs and the best thing you can do is timely oil and filter changes.