before 1973 we think

an old hand crank diesel.even an old pre 73 still has a starter, alternator, and coil all have copper windings that can be damaged in an emp. you could take these off and put in a faraday cage, and install them after.
i think the best choice would be to find an old mechanical diesel,with a standard trans, so it could be push started if necessary, and make bio diesel after the power grid goes down.

I'd have to agree with 86 bigred but fear the supply of mechanical diesels would be low and hard to locate. The older and simpler the better for gasoline powered. Carburetor rather than fuel injected for gasoline power is a good starting point. I'm kicking my own butt for missing out on a 68 or 69 Land Rover but the question of parts availability came to mind.

While a PITA the Faraday cage storage of electrical essentials along with a few rolls of electrical wire would be a good idea. One thing I would do is remove the positive cable from the battery and ground it while said vehicle is in storage. While that won't stop all damage it ought to help quite a bit if energy levels are 'damage' high but not insanely high.

The effects of EMP on vehicles is one of the topics that little is known about, basically from the lack of proper testing...or at least our access to the results.
Many look at the now famous video from the Discovery Channel of a Ford Taurus getting fried by a manufactured EMP.
One thing to note about the video though, is that the car did still have battery power after the EMP hit...even certain functions such as the power windows still worked, but the car stalled and would not restart.
There have been other tests done though, although the results of which are limited, but this is what we do know...
First off, the vehicles were subjected to increasingly powerful EMPs...only up to the point where effects were observed.
Cars...
37 were tested with vintages ranging from 1986 to 2002. They were also tested when they were both running and not running.
No car suffered an effect when not running.
8 of these cars did not experience any effects.
The most serious effect was engine stall. These cars glided to a stop and had to be restarted...which they did.
25 of them suffered only nuisance malfunctions such as blinking dashboard lights.
so let's see...37(tested) - 8(no effect)-25(blinking lights)= 4 cars stalled and were able to be restarted.
Trucks were also tested with vintages ranging from 1991 - 2003. Everything from light duty gasoline pickups to large diesel tractors...no details on how many of which kind though.
Again, trucks not running suffered no effects.
13 out of 18 trucks experienced problems...only 3 of those 13 suffered an engine stall, and 2 were restarted right away...1 required a tow to be repaired, although there is no mention of what the damage was.
Now, a lot depends on the strength of the EMP as well as other factors and I think that a lot more testing needs to be done.
You can read more about this here...
http://www.futurescience.com/emp.html

Thank you Denob. There is likely to be some legitimate concerns over a massive EMP. However, you provided the first example of something resembling fact rather than fancy.

This is the type of information that we need to be emphasizing alongside of concerns. There are dangers in life, but perspective on the relative severity is crucially important. Provide education about risks, but hand-in-hand with positive solutions and honest assessments of the actual impact that is likely to occur.

Kudos.

Unfortunately, what we don't know about those tests is how close they were to an actual nuclear EMP event...
that was more research than I was able to do for now.
One more thing that I did find out though, is that an EMP from a solar event strong enough to cause vehicle damage is as likely as a world ending meteor...
could happen, but only every few million years or so.
Solar cause EMPs could knock out the power grid, causing fuel shortages though.

that was a long but informative article on emp's. thank you learned lots.

Great info...thought the issue was the computer in newer vehicles and also thought if battery was out it would be alright.

Thank-you for all the responses,information and links. Excellent!! So my thoughts now are, if a EMP ( solar or man made) proves to cause major problems, it could easily be a game changer for our fragile society. If I had a pre- 1973 vehicle, that I had taken all the sensitive parts off and actually stored them in a faraday cage, that assumes I know how to take it apart & put it together. All of this would MAYBE give me a working vehicle, if so then there would not be many working vehicles, so now I would need to find fuel for it..( no pumps working) and I would have to protect it, because now I am a huge target to anyone who may decide they need a working vehicle. There will be people who form into roving packs, who didn't go to all this trouble they just bought guns & amo., packed a monster bug out bag, that they can't really carry ... So they assertain my vehicle! If I am extremely lucky at this point I would be walking!! Lol! So think I will just make walking my plan.

there is always a bicycle.

I think you should plan to drive. You're probably more likely to be hit by lightning tomorrow than ever suffer the effects of an EMP event.
Or call your chauffeur after you win the lottery next week, again more likely than an EMP.

Better yet, plant a garden. You won't have to bug out at all and you'll be better prepared for something that might actually happen.

Denob, Denob, Denob.
I have another of those annoying C5 rules of Survival- "There is no such thing as a Prepper Expert. Anyone who tells you they are is just trying to sell you something. We theorise about the future, How it will play out and how to best survive it. We are all just guessing. That's all we have to offer. Don't be fooled by snake oil salesmen. It could kill ya". (speaking of which, I have a few things to say about the Survival Summit but we will get to that on a later post)

Denob,I may have been wrong. Periodically, You sneak in a Sucker Punch that shows you are an expert. I sometimes delude myself thinking there is not much else I don't know or, at least have a reference book on the shelf I can go to because I cant memorise every thing, or at least know who to ask . Then you sneak in with something like this.

I find myself with a sore jaw, sitting on my touché, going "OK, Where the hell did that come from? How is it evenly remotely possible that I missed that?"

Good job, Dude.

I have been duped by so many in the past it really isn't funny.
I used to research prepper/survival topics by trying to figure out who had the most credible website...survivalschmuck or prepperpoophead.
They all claimed to have the right answers after having done extensive research...although no one ever quoted any sources.
Then I found this wonderful button on Google.....NEXT.
Keep clicking that button until all the websites like Godly Productions or Before it Might be News have disappeared from view...you will start to see some actual results, not biased by a hit count.
In my opinion, anything found on Google before AT LEAST page 7 is probably crap.
Now, as for the topic at hand...
Does the testing result I found guarantee that most cars will be unaffected...no.
I simply haven't confirmed if the tests were comparable to something we might experience with an intentional nuclear detonation for EMP effect.
What it does show however, is that not every car goes to automobile heaven after an EMP.

Edited after I found this...
http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/07/the_simple_reality_of_emp_diff.html

Well Denob ...first things first Thanks for that info,its still very good to add to my information files, and fairly credible info is better than no info and it helps alieve some of my concerns related to that.
So here's a question if you park a vehicle in a Seacan which is all metal and it is earthed, then you remove the ground off the vehicles battery ...has that not placed the vehicle in a faraday cage and protected it because it will not be running at the time, unless it is hit during times of routine maintanence, but it will still be in the seacan.

Also I like the idea of enduro type motorcycles as a secondary backup ...easy to hide easy to get around on and with a pack set up you can carry a reasonable amount of materials or supplies if you are going to get supplies, not as a main bug out vehicle but a back up. They can go places to lose a tail and be more covert than a larger 4 wheel unit.