Dear Mr. Fix-It T have a 1966 Pivmouth VLP with a 318-V8 engi It was my father’s last car. After he passed away and my mother no longer cared what car she was chauffeured in, [ put the car in storage. It was in storage for 12 years. When I lost this storage area | had it towed up to my garage where it sat for another three | years. I then had enough time to get i running and license it as a collec- tors car. It had about 40,000 miles on it but being inactive for such a long time I had to renew the brak the cylinders and the master cylin- der had to be overhauled. The gas tank had to be cleaned and relined, the gas Jines, carbure- tor and fuel pursp had to be soaked and cleaned. I was careful to make sure all the cylinders, crankshaft, etc. were well Inbricated before 1 installed a bat- tery and fired it up. It started and ran like it was new. I want to preserve this car for my son or a grandchild so I drive it once a week and make sure it is well warmed up as I have learned a car deteriorates faster when not used than they do if you drive them sen- sibly. My question is: How do I pre- serve the engine which was manu- factured to run on leaded gas? I have been adding a synthetic lead additive to each tank full of unleaded gas but I can no longer buy this product. Can vou advise me on what | should do. George Martin North Vancouver Dear George, The 1966 Plymouth that you are Irving to preserve will run on today’s gasoline without any problems. The main issue would be starting it up every week and running i Ifyou are just storing the car in a dry place there is no harm in just let- ting the car be —- except for the bat- tery. The engine will not deteriorate in a dry environment. If the area is damp I would ree- ommend spraying the engine com- partment and any areas of exposed mettle with a rust repellent. This will help preserve the car. I recommend having the battery hooked up to a trickle charger and with a timer to activate one a week for four hours. Starting the car up and running it 2000 TOYOTA ECHO 4 Doore ED Plover see 995 photo submitted GEORGE Martin’s 1966 Plymouth V.LP. has been storea for 15 years of its fife. # has 50,000 miles on the odometer. it is as it came out of the factory, the interior is like new and the clock is stilt working. ithout driving it for fiftecn minutes would create more harm than good because of fuel contaminating the oil. During, warm up the engine takes at least 15 minutes for the choke to come off and the engine would need to burn off excess fue! vapours dur- ing the warm-up cycle. If you have collectors plates and don’t want the car just sitting, then drive the vehicle once a month for 45 minutes to an hou! Charles Taylor Taylormotive Service Ltd. (since TOYGTA TUNDRA "2000 TOYOTA CAMRY 4 Door © Autemeiic © Als V6 auto, looks & runs great (97,998 | agama. ; oes: eo nt ooh. 5 spd, V6, SR5, pi, 7 y locks, mitrors, H.axc. condition $2 GEO STORM Sporty, 2 dr coupe, auto 3 looks & runs great. "5,495 5 spd. super clear, hurry Full elze pick-up © W3 © Ale © Power Group @ sad much more! Got a question for Mr, Fix-it? Send it c/o Martin Millerchip, North Shere News, 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C., V7M 2H4. Fax to 985-2104 or, best of all, e-mail . Please do not try to phone in your questions. “TOYOTA 4RUNNER ‘xg ° fie © Power Group © Renalng Beerge Ee 430 3.P. 27, 028.08 + taxes $8 TOYOTA cDnOL VE t auto, 4 fleet return, Sa. 4 dr, auto, tow km. *13,495 Fully equipped, looks § and runs like new 5 a had futty Ey SU privacy glass, exc. cond. 97 TOYOTA CAMRY ( CE Nicely equipped, tow kms, like new, $16,595 & 97 FORD EXPLORER ri : avd, fully loaded, privac vg ass, 84 CADILLAC SEVILLE sts 4 dr, leather, Sunroot.* 32V' north beautiful car 12 cyt., tow, fow, Jow km, exe. cond. *71,995