Gear, thanks for the advice, I think I will start it at least once a month (plug it in for 3 hrs first) & back it out of the garage to exercise everything, circulate the fluids & pump the brakes & all that.

 

If your going this far then you need to take it out and run it long enough to get the condensation out of the motor and turbo. In other words get the engine temps stabilized on a hiway run.

 

I would love to take a ride down the highway but that's why I park it for the winter , I dont want salt on it.....I will run it long enough to heat it up not just idle it

 

Gigger

The problem is the turbo.

Anti rust coating came in the 07? model year.

You are going to get rust --- in my case, a brisk run (where the turbo vanes got swept a lot) at least once a week retarded it.

If you don't do that, I am afraid you will end up doing the manual rust cleaning once a season before you use it.

 

Personally, and I could be wrong, you're going to create more problems, expensive ones, than you're going to prevent.

 

Salt in his area is real bad ---so there are very few good choices.

The only thing I can think of is to have a spare turbo around that is cleaned, ready for summer.

Then swap it out in the spring, and clean the other one and keep rotating.

 

I still don't like the idea of not getting the condensation out of the crankcase.

 

You already know I'm crazy for parking a truck but, for the turbo, what if I put the truck up on jack stands & run it through the gears up to say 50 mph? Is it the same if there is no load on it?

 

I live in salt lake, we have salt issues lol. Anyway I just take the truck to a carwash every few days. And just high pressure rinse off all the salt. Get under things with that spray gun and hit it all. I also drive for a company that takes people back and forth to the ski resorts and the airport. They have 10yr old E series 4x4 vans with 300k+ miles on them with little to no rust. Because the drivers rinse them down in a car wash every night. And off topic but all those vans with 300k+ miles are gassers that have had nothing but royal purple in them for the last 8 yrs Stuffs awesome!

 

Um... are we trying to solve a problem that has not manifest?

Why not just try it Gigger's original way (with a trickle charger) and see what happens first.

The worse case is a cleaning of the turbo...

Rest of the issues may be immaterial.

 

Thanks everybody for the info & suggestion's.

 

This is nuts.

You guys are treating this like it is some type of rare fragile bird (keep a spare turbo and swap it out? Are you serious?) This is not about the storage of a twin-turbo Ferrari 288 GTO. This is a pickup truck.

First: The parasitic loss is less than 1amp, so your trickle charger is sufficient. But more to the point, if you are not driving the truck for the winter months and you are staying awake fretting over all of this, just disconnect the batteries.

And if you want extra points, pull the batteries and store them somewhere inside (NOT on concrete).

Next: Worried about turbocharger vane rust? ok- fine. Seal up the exhaust pipe with a plastic cap and tape and seal the turbo intake. Presto- moisture can not make it into your turbocharger and rust can not occur.

But I have to say, all of this concern is a little over the top. We have equipment with variable geometry turbochargers that does not turn a wheel from November through April. Including service trucks.

The turbochargers are just fine.

Problem solved.

Starting things once a week and not bringing them up to full operating temperature is bound to create a lot more problems than it solves.

-mike

 

Mike...

Concur....

Old engineering rule of thumb... always ask if you are trying to solve a problem that in fact, do not exist.