Right before this snow and cold crap hit us. I tore down a 350 to just the block and left everything sitting out. Well today I went out to my garage to get my tanks turned back on so I could start back on my motor and I noticed my crank journals are starting to get a light coat of rust on them. I can rub most of it off but what can I do now? I poured some fresh oil I had on all the bare metals for tonight but what else can i do?

 

Keep it well oiled. You can also wrap it in plastic for some additional protection.

 

A water-displacing rust preventive coating can help if you must keep the metals bare and exposed. That is exactly what WD-40 was originally intended to be - A rust preventive coating. Temperature swings are going to cause condensation, so prepare for it.

The surfaces should be able to be cleaned with a mild abrasive and treated with a rust preventive. Avoid anything harder than flint paper or crucus cloth. Aluminum oxide sandpaper is not good for this purpose. Scotch-Brite can also be used. Any residue needs to be kept out of oil passages and cleaned away before assembly, just as you would usually do.

 

Don't leave bare metal exposed, especially cast iron, in an unconditioned space. (no heat or A/C) It will flash rust and get worse as time goes by.

Spray the iron and steel parts with penetrating oil, WD-40 works great, and cover it with a plastic sheet. pistons are aluminum so not as big an issue.

Be sure to wash all the parts and blow dry with clean compressed air before re-assembly

cleaniless is Godliness..

 

Ditto on WD-40 it is made to displace water, I always spray a little in my distributor cap when ever I have it off. Just my 2 cents.

 

Coat the crank journals in assembly lube after cleaning them with 0000 grade steel wool. You're going to use assembly lube anyways, so just do it now. I've never been a fan of the thin penetrating oils, especially since I coated my clean brake rotors with it and they rusted anyways. I had a 2.8 crank in my garage for 5 years before I scrapped it last year. I would assume it was coated in assembly lube since it was mounted in a block when I got it. You could easily tell the difference between the coated journals and the ones that weren't coated. And then wrap the crank in plastic wrap. I just hope you're storing it properly so it doesn't warp.