Well, its time for a rebuild/new engine for my firebird. The car is already in storage, and soon I will either be building up my 400, or getting a new 350. Either way, I'll have an engine on the stand for a couple months. What should I do to protect it from rusting? Is it good enough to just soak it with WD40 or some kind of other oil?

 

If you have the space and the facilities, get a de-humidifier for the room it's in. You can use this in conjunction with any other measures you wish to take, but they are excellent for that sort of thing and relatively cheap too.

 

a thick plastic bag,1 can of wd-40 spray it allover and put that dig condom on it will be lubed and protected....

 

What's a condom?

 

Depends on how long it has to be stored. WD40 is good for a few months but anything a year or longer and you need some real oil like machine oil.

 

I had a completed short block in my garage over the winter last year. I used Marvel Mystery oil on all of the walls and exposed areas. Marvel is available at most auto parts stores. It is very good for assembly as well.

www.geocities.com/dzperf

 

DON"T USE WD-40!!!! it's only a temporary lubricant,.. it cust grease and oil,.. use a good engine pre-lube

 

Wow. That's odd. Caterpillar specifies WD-40 as a rust preventive for all their fuel injection partsI worked for a company that manufactured and supplied them with lots of injection parts, and that was their accepted rust preventive. Actually, their ISO designation was "RP-40" (Rust Preventive-40).

WD-40 was originally formulated to be a water displacing rust preventive, NOT a lubricant. However, since everyone intentionally misuses it as a lubricant, WD-40 is now marketed in consumer packages with hints of using it as such. I try not to. That's what real oil is for.

 

Wipe it down and put a good coat (or two) of heavier oil on it and double bag it with some thick 60 gal drum bags. One from each end. Actually I like to make my own lube. I take a quart of 10w30 oil and mix it with a bottle of STP "engine honey". Makes good assembly oil too, I use it on all my motors.