Practical Engine Building: Preparing Parts for Storage
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Preparing Parts for Storage
06.41
| 00:00 | - In the perfect world, once our parts have been picked up from the engine machine shop, we'd like to get stuck straight into assembling our fresh engine. |
| 00:08 | However in some circumstances, we may need to store these parts for weeks, months, or even years before it's actually time to assemble the engine. |
| 00:17 | Now particularly if you live in a humid climate, the period of time where the parts are being stored can cause a lot of damage if we don't correctly look after these products before they go into storage. |
| 00:30 | In particular any cast iron surfaces can quickly end up suffering from corrosion and this can render them useless, requiring us to go back and spend more money having parts replaced or remachined. |
| 00:44 | So what we're going to look at in this module is a few tips and tricks in order to get the most out of your parts and store them safely so you're not going to end up with damaged components when it comes time for the assembly. |
| 00:57 | Let's start with our engine block here, and we have a cast 2JZ Toyota engine block. |
| 01:03 | Now the block's already been completely cleaned and prepared for assembly, but let's just say for example here, we're now going to need to store this block for a few months. |
| 01:13 | One of the important things is to make sure that we stop any moisture from getting access to the machined surfaces of the block. |
| 01:22 | This includes the deck surface, the cylinder walls, and also the sump rails and the main bearing journals. |
| 01:30 | What we want to do is grab a clean rag, and what we're going to do here is get our oiling can with clean mineral based engine oil and what we're going to do is just apply a liberal coat of engine oil to any of those freshly machined surfaces. |
| 01:46 | It's as simple as just rubbing the rag over those surfaces. |
| 01:50 | And what it'll do is just apply that coat of oil that's going to prevent any corrosion occurring. |
| 01:56 | We also need to do exactly the same down the cylinder walls, it's really important to make sure that we protect that fresh hone pattern, and we want to use a good liberal coat of oil here, more is definitely better. |
| 02:09 | Once we've applied the oil to all of our machined surfaces, we're going to want to store the engine block so that dust and debris from the atmosphere isn't going to be attracted to that oiled surface. |
| 02:21 | Now some manufacturers actually offer specific engine storage bags which are made exactly for this purpose. |
| 02:28 | The other option you've got here is just to simply use a plastic rubbish bag. |
| 02:34 | So what I'm going to do here, I've just got a large plastic rubbish bag. |
| 02:38 | We can open that out and simply pull it over our engine block. |
| 02:52 | Now once we've got our engine block sealed like this, we can close up the end of the rubbish bag with a cable tie or race tape, and that's going to pretty well stop any debris and dirt from getting onto the engine block. |
| 03:04 | Of course when it does come time to pull our block out of storage and start the assembly process, we're still going to need to go through a thorough cleaning on the block, but taking precautions such as storing the block like this are going to mean, that first of all, we're not going to have problems with corrosion, and secondly any dirt and dust ingress is going to be minimised. |
| 03:25 | Now that we've looked at the engine block, let's have a look at how we can go about storing our other engine components. |
| 03:31 | When it comes to the crankshaft, again we need to protect the machined surfaces of the journals from any potential corrosion. |
| 03:39 | Now when I'm storing a crankshaft for any period of time, I like to use a product such as this, CRC Soft Seal. |
| 03:47 | And this is a purpose designed product for protecting components from moisture. |
| 03:53 | Essentially what it is is a spray on wax protectant and it provides a relatively thick surface layer of wax that dries on the crankshaft, and this prevents any chance of moisture making it through and attacking or damaging the crankshaft surfaces. |
| 04:09 | Now you do need to be a little bit careful when you are using this product because it does actually require quite a bit of effort to clean the product off the crankshaft surfaces, again when it comes time for assembly. |
| 04:24 | So if you are using this product you do need to be very diligent with your cleaning process. |
| 04:28 | So if we're storing the crankshaft, once we've given it a thorough coating of Soft Seal product and allowed it to dry correctly, we can then place this, again, in an engine bag or a trash bag for storage to make sure that no dust and debris makes it onto the crankshaft. |
| 04:46 | Let's move on now and we'll have a look at what we can do with our connecting rods. |
| 04:51 | So with most connecting rods being produced from a steel alloy, they're obviously prone to corrosion. |
| 04:58 | So what we want to do is make sure that all of the surfaces of the connecting rod, again are coated in a liberal coating of fresh clean engine oil. |
| 05:07 | This is just going to protect them from any corrosion. |
| 05:10 | And once we've done that, going to store them away in a little plastic bag. |
| 05:15 | So in this case, this is the actual plastic bag that these conrods came in, which makes it really easy. |
| 05:22 | Again we can use any form of plastic bag just to protect them from dirt and debris. |
| 05:28 | Now we'll have a look at our pistons. |
| 05:34 | In most instances our pistons are going to be supplied in a box, so this is a really easy way of storing them. |
| 05:40 | Because they're aluminium we don't need to worry about the pistons themselves rusting, but we do need to give some consideration to the wrist pins. |
| 05:49 | Again with the wrist pins being made out of steel, they are likely to rust if they're left for a prolonged period of time. |
| 05:56 | So I'm just going to again coat the wrist pin in engine oil, and I'm just going to slip the wrist pin back into the little plastic bag that it's supplied in, and that'll again keep it clean until it comes time to assemble it. |
| 06:11 | So there's nothing particularly complex or difficult to understand here, but a little bit of care and attention to detail when it comes time to store our machined components can mean the difference between components that come out of storage ready to be assembled, and potentially expensive but damaged components we can't use, or the requirement perhaps to send our parts back out to the machine shop at additional expense. |
