unfortunately i'm putting the miata away for the winter today, and since this is the first winter i've had a race car i was wondering what all needs to be done. is just adding some anti-freeze sufficient to keep the water from freezing? i'm taking the head off to rebuild it this winter, so do i need to put anything on top of the block to protect it? is a full tank of fuel needed? what else do i need to do

thanks fellas

 

I'd assume storing a race car should be similar to storing a normal car
only thing I've read so far that differs is that if you have R-compound tires...keep them away from the cold (i.e. inside)

-make sure your antifreeze will take the cold (50/50? 60/40?)
-either remove the wheels & support the car on blocks or put on steelies & crap tires
-full tank of gas with fuel stabilizer (read instructions on back of bottle)

should be good enough

 

I don't do anything particularly special, apart from starting the thing weekly to make sure it still works. I store mine with minimal fuel in the tank, and every so often I go to the gas station with my cans so I can top it off with gas that isn't old and terrible.

As to the coolant, for sure I'd put some antifreeze in there.

For the head removal...good question. I don't know what the "right" answer is but personally I'd want to shield it from bugs/mice/frost/weather/competitors as much as I could. And occasionally, if it were me, I'd squirt some motor oil down in there and turn the crank at the crank pulley, just to keep things happy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by REFLUX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">only thing I've read so far that differs is that if you have R-compound tires...keep them away from the cold (i.e. inside)
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I dont think the cold has a lot to do with ruining r compound tires...of course I could be wrong here. Im under the assumption they need to be sealed airtight or as close as you can get to that or the tires will keep curing which makes them hard.

 

i will be daily driving the race car again this winter!

 

Travis- I make sure the antifreeze is good to -35 or so, put stabil in the gas tank and make sure to run the car enough so this gets into the FI or carb. I also fog the engine to keep a thin layer of oil in the cylinders and such. I also store the car clean and with fresh oil in the engine. I then keep the car on crap tires and keep the good ones in the basement away from electric motors and the sun and call it good.

This is also the proceedure a lot of marinas in the upper Midwest use on smaller boats for winterizing except most of these have the cooling system drained.