One can "pickle" a piston engine, store it, and expect a good engine when you re-install the engine. Can one do this with a jet? Are jet engines economically storable, or do the components time out on a calendar basis?

Yes, the maintenance manuals generally have storage procedures.


Generally, the engine parts are cycle and hour limited, not calendar time.

There may be certain things, notably some sort of corrosion inspection, which requires calendar time.

Jet and turboprop engines sit much better than piston engines. The oil contains no combustion by products (which contains water and acids) unlike a piston engine. The air path in the engine has few if any steel parts.

Mike C.

Yes, the maintenance manuals generally have storage procedures.


Generally, the engine parts are cycle and hour limited, not calendar time.

There may be certain things, notably some sort of corrosion inspection, which requires calendar time.

Jet and turboprop engines sit much better than piston engines. The oil contains no combustion by products (which contains water and acids) unlike a piston engine. The air path in the engine has few if any steel parts.

Mike C.

The "run every X days" requirement is if you DON'T preserve the engine.

The TPE331 maintenance manual gives instructions on how to preserve the engine. Consists mostly of draining fluids, putting in preservation fluids, covers for openings, and a color indicating desiccant. The desiccant is to be checked every month while in storage and replenished if color changes. The manual suggests the engine can be kept this way indefinitely.

Mike C.

Storage on-wing or storage in a container?

This. In a past life, I transported pickled military turbine engines. They were drained of fluids and placed in round metal containers that kind of resemble an iron lung. The containers were filled with inert gas and could be stored that way essentially forever. I recall on several occasions shipping to active service areas engines in containers that had labels showing they were packed in the 1970s.

They still got 'em. I saw rows of them last week in the Boneyard at Davis Monthan. But they also had rows of engines just shrink-wrapped so maybe they're switching to that.