Parking Car For Winter

Change the oil before/after hibernation. It's something I do with my storage vehicles and my winter-use vehicles too

I'm pretty familiar with condensation (and other demons of winter). My old plow trucks have all had brutal lives.

My '87 D50 (Rust in pieces...literally :D ) Plow Truck was subjected to "Rabbit Starts", as in Hit the key, throw it in gear and drop the clutch before the oil pressure gauge even had a chance to reach 10psi (out of a 90psi cold idle, which it usually hit 90 in about 3 seconds). It also saw lots of quick-runs, where the engine would run long enough to scrape a layer of ice (single pass) off a driveway/parking lot and then was immediately shut down for several hours (repeat again when more ice hit, or the snow finally flew).

That '87 also saw use as a Daily Driver & Work Truck and the engine lived to over 250k. I changed the oil every 3k miles, and then regardless of mileage it got an oil change at the start of winter, half way through the plowing season, and another one in the spring. You'd be surprised at the moisture that gathers in an engine that is started and shut down frequently in the winter, not to mention the large amount of fuel too. The was one time (after plowing a lot, was a rough winter) I changed the oil and I swear that the old oil had more octane in it than the gas tank did :D

I'll second what the others are saying, just don't start it during the winter/storage months. Less problems that way.