Hello, I'm wondering what would be the best way to prep a nitro engine for long term storage?, well not storage really as they are on display and only get brought out on very rare occasions....(once in the last 5 yrs.).........these engines are in a Tmaxx and a Savage that belonged to my son who passed away in 2005, I have put after run in them but they have "locked" up twice since sitting on the shelfin our home... any Ideas?Thinking of pulling the rod and piston from each and storing them that way, but I'd really like tokeep them in running condition if possible.........Thanks,Steve

Remove the glow plug, put a few drops of after run oil down in the cylinder, then put a drop or two down in the carb. Pop the engines over a few times to spread it around. They should be good for years.

The best preservative is an oil that mixes with glow fuel that gets spread over all parts of the engine while it's running. The only one I know of that does this is castor and it'll preserve an engine for decades. The downside is that it goes gummy over a period of months and needs to be freed up before running the engine again, particularly in the wrist pin to rod area and the bearings. It's not hard to do by flooding the engine with acetone or fuel though. Other than that, auto trans fluid (ATF) is very good as is Marvel Air Tool Oil (NOT Marvel Mystery Oil). The ARO in small bottles from the LHS is auto trans oil. For long term storage you have to make sure that whatever you use gets to the front bearing because that's the hardest part for oil to get to.

Thanks Fellas, but after run is a no go...so far.......my engines have locked up twice using it.... may try the casor.... I don't care about gummy, but I do care about destroyed, I'll pull those engines apart soon and see the if there's any damage....... maybe the after run has prevented rust damage... hope so, and if that's the case........I guess that's ok........

take the exaust of get a good wd40 and spray a generous amount so it works in the bearings if you just put in the glow plug most of it if not all is going to go out of the exaust

First thing is to run the engine dry when you are done running them to get all the fuel out of the engine.
Run the tank almost empty then let it idle until it dies.Or just remove the fuel line and let it run out of fuel and empty the tank and lines and rinse the tank and lines with rubbing alcohol.
Try restarting it until it no longer "pops off" with the glow ignitor installed.

Then put some ARO in it and crank it over.
I rarely use ARO, but I do run my engines dry and they always look nice inside after years of storage.

What I do is simply run it out of fuel, set it to BDC, and store it in my bedroom somewhere. I've had engines sitting idle for two years fire right up storing them this way. The OS I run now spent six months on my desk after being run dry like this. When I went to refire it I needed three pulls to get it purring again.