[David J]

Good idea to change oil to get rid of as many contaminents as possible . If you did -do change the oil after it was removed pull the plugs and spin it with the starter till it has oil pressure and keep spinning it for 10 seconds after it has oil pressure { wait a minute and repeat this several times } then add a little of the same oil to each cylinder & roll it over at least 2 revolutions by hand. The starter spinning thing will get fresh-clean oil in all the passages-bearings . I live in the country so the mice thing is an issue . What works here for that is to crumple up some tin foil and plug all openings with it & then duck tape over that . Meeses evidently don't care for chewing on this stuff . Occasionally roll it over a little to give the valves a different "SET" . If you have clean oil in it & if you used the same oil in the cylinders you can just start it up in the future without changing the oil . Good idea to loosen the plug to check for water though first . Then you can spin it over enough without spark plugs to clear the cylinders & get oil pressure . As is the norm here you will probably get many opinions on this but the above will work .

Originally Posted by Brendan

what should i do before i store a good running Flathead, for future use?
should i put some oil or Marvels in the cylinders?