My personal Grumpy inquiry: Proper break-in procedure?

[QWKDTSN]

Hey Grumpy (and, of course, anyone who knows their salt), I'm curious about the proper break in procedure for a freshly rebuilt 350 with mostly brand new parts (minus the crank, rods, and valves). My cam is a hydraulic flat tappet and I have roller rockers. I've heard lots of different ways to break in the cam, from 1500 RPM for 30 minutes, to 2000 RPM for 20 minutes, to varying stages - 1000 RPM for 5, 1500 for 5, 2500 for 5, 3500 for 5 - things like that. What oil should I use for cam break in? I'll be priming the pump before starting it up. Once the cam's broken in, how long on the street before changing the oil? What should I change it to? What should my street break in procedure be? Take it easy for 500 miles or so? I've never had to go through this procedure before so I need all the help I can get! I wonder how I'll need to get my distributor set up for the initial cam break in? And so on... Thank you guys so much. PS.. I have my electrical all done.. yes!! There weren't any shorts, The gauges all sprung to life when I put the key to ignition, the motor turned right over and the fuel pump turned on. Now I just need to hook up the radiator and stuff like that..

 

Oh yeah! What kind of backpressure should I use for cam break in? I was thinking I would pick up some 90" mandrel bends and clamp them up to the flanges I have and some $10 glasspacks.. sound OK? I still need to get exhaust figured out.

[grumpyvette]

I know you already checked ALL YOUR CLEARANCES ARE CORRECT!RIGHT? ok first make sure the ignition timeing , coolent levels are correct, all the hoses are conected ETC and a good oil filter is installed, add a can of G.M. E.O.S. to the oil(G.M.part #1052367 )

 

ENGOILSUP

 

EOS - Engine Assembly Prelube

Specifically formulated as an engine assembly lubricant. E.O.S. provides outstanding protection against run-in wear and piston scuffing as well as run-in camshaft lobe and lifter scuffing resulting from insufficient lubrication.)

 

fill the engine with a good brand of MINERAL BASE OIL of about 10w-30 weight (VALVEOLINE, ETC. anything with a S/G or S/H rateing

next prime the oil pump while turning the engine over BY HAND SLOWLY untill oil runs out of all the push rod/rocker arms (if it doesn,t find out WHY BEFORE STARTING THE ENGINE) this is a good time to roughly adjust your valves if you have not yet done so. once everything checks outget the garden hose running if you might need it to cool the radiator and if you have one keep a fire extinguisher handy, check the float levels in the carb and fuel pressure is ok and fire it up with a timeing light on the motor, finish timeing it correctly and get it to at least 1500rpm-2000rpm and keep it at least that high for 15 minutes, if everything looks good take it for an around the block tour for an hour too 90 more minutes, bring it home, let it cool and change the oil filter(after 100 miles change the oil and oil filter again to mobile 1 synthetic in what ever weigth will keep 25lbs of hot oil pressure at idle, after you have changed to mobile 1 synthectic and broken in the rings and cam your ready to run the crap out of it at the 100 mile mark, by that time everthing is lapped in BTW I always stick four of these magnets in the corners of the oil pan sump , you will be amazed at how much metalic dust they pick out of the oil and keep from getting to your bearings,(either one works fine)

http://www.wondermagnet.com/dev/magnet2.html

http://www.wondermagnet.com/dev/magnet42.html

 

synthetic oil has much greater film strength that it slows the lapping in of the lifters to cam lobes and rings to cylinder walls to a great extent, yes you can use synthetic oil to break in an engine but it will take longer and in some cases the rings don,t completely seal to the cylinders for about 500 miles while breaking in on mineral oil everythings lapped in by 100 miles or 3 hrs of running time. and yes constantly vary the engine speed durring break in but it must be in the 1500rpm-4000rpm window for proper oil flow/splash lubracation of the parts, btw this tool adds greatly to the oil flow to the cam lobes,

http://www.compcams.com/catalog/335.html

and read this

 

 

http://www.melling.com/engoil.html

 

http://www.melling.com/highvol.html

Im NOT recommending you rev your new engine to 4000rpm, I Am saying its ok to let a new engine get to 4000rpm MAX for brief periods OCCASIONALLY going from gear to gear shifting under light load as a max rpm level as you accelerate going thru the gears in the car! only a total idiot would take an engine with (o) miles on it and go drag racing if the clearances are set up tight for long term use as a street driven car without at least some breakin time even if its just an hour cycling through the rpm ranges on a dyno. during the first hour of running time there is FAR MORE HEAT ON THE CONTACT POINTS AS THE RINGS AND LIFTERS LAP IN and those magnets I mentioned pick up lots of metalic dust, and that can get embeded into your bearings without those magnets. BASICALLY what your doing durring that first hour and to some extent the first hundred miles is letting all the high spots wear away and the metalic dust formed wash into the sump in the oil pan where its picked up by magnets if your smart or by the oil pump and hopefully trapped by the filter BEFORE IT GETS TO THE BEARINGS ETC.another reason they tell you to keep the engine rpms low durring breakin is to try to insure the oil filter bypass valve stays shut by keeping the oil pressure in the mid ranges to hopefully allow ALL the metallic dust to pass thru the filter,btw the main reason they tell you to keep the rpms at at least 1500rpm is because the cam is mostly lubracated by oil thrown from the spinning rods/crankshaft and below 1500rpm there is significantly less oil being thrown around in the lower block by the rotateing assembly and that the cam lobes on a flat tappet cam need to have that oil film on the lobes for the metal to lap in and work harden the mateing surfaces between the lifters and cam lobes. that tool I refered to causes high pressure oil to constantly spray on that lobe surface greatly increaseing the oil flow to the contact area and helping to prevent lobe failures, it also helpd spray extra oil on roller wheels on roller cams/lifters, look here at lifter #866

http://www.compcams.com/catalog/261.html

notice the oil groove! that is there to do the same job!

[QWKDTSN]

Thank you very much Grumpy!! I'm sure everything you've recommended will be of great use to me. I want to have total peace of mind that I'm breaking my new baby in right You are easily one of the most valued members on this board, and for good reason.

 

I read that I should set the timing to 20 degrees advance to ensure an immediate start then turn it down for break in - what should the total advance be? I have a vaccuum advance HEI distributor. I guess the only other question is, what about the backpressure? I would feel more comfortable having some (and a little less noise would make me less nervous, and like JTR says, people can hear you yell for help..) but is it really necessary or can I just run the block huggers dumping straight into the ground?

[grumpyvette]

your neigbors may burn you at the stake later and piss on whats left of you in the ashes after they cool if you break-in that engine with open headers, but yes you could break in that engine with open shorty headers but hooking up the exhaust system will make everyone happier!

try to set that engine at about 36 degs TOTAL ADVANCE for the break-in period that will keep you out of detonation and everything in the engine happy too.BACK PRESSURE IS BAD, BAD,BAD, the idea has gotten around that you need back pressure to build torque, FALSE!!!!!! that IDEA was prevalent because if you stick too large of an exhaust pipe on a low rpm engine it loses the ability to scavage the cylinders with the exhaust gas pulse in the exhaust with stock exhaust manifolds, some how the old wifes tale got around that you needed back pressure...FALSE.. what you need was EFFECTIVE CYLINDER SCAVAGEING which the smaller tail pipe dia. was provideing by acting like the collector on a set of headers!if you have headers , especially full length headers you can,t make the exhaust too large,THINK ABOUT IT! the first thing you do at the track is un-cork your headers....why? because YEARS OF TESTING PROVES, less BACK PRESSURE MAKES MORE HP WITH HEADERS!!!!

[QWKDTSN]

Haha! I know, I remember when my next door neighbor was breaking in his 429 small block Ford in his 68 Mustang fastback. What a beast! The poor old lady across the street thought it was the end of the world. That's definitely been one of my considerations as well when it comes to exhaust or not during break in. Thanks for the info about backpressure

[BLKMGK]

Speaking of magnets... I've always found that magnetizing the dipstick is a great way to allow me to make quick checks on engine health. If you pull the dipstick and find a TON of metal on it you know something's NOT right Just get a good strong magnet and stroke the dipstick in one direction only until it's got a charge (stop that pervs!).

 

I also like the idea of putting those wraparoound magnets on the oil filter. I don't have one yet but the idea makes great sense to me - you can get the shavings trapped in the filter which gets disposed of at each change. Also - magnetic drain plugs are good too IMO. You can never have enough magnets around when the object is to remove ferrous metal!

[QWKDTSN]

Grumpy, I checked out a bottle of EOS at the GM dealer parts counter and they specifically state that they do not recommend adding it to engine oil. They say it should be used as an assembly lube only. What do you think? I trust what you say, but I assume there's a good reason that GM doesn't want me to add it to the oil.

[grumpyvette]

if you read my post carefully it says,change the oil filter after 90 minutes too 2 hrs and change the oil and oil filter again at 100 miles, the oil filter will be partly clogged with metalic dust and E.O.S.the first time the engine cools thats why I said change the oil filter the first time the engine cools I also said to change the oil filter and the oil at the 100 mile point thats to remove any oil that has remaining traces of E.O.S. and remaining metalic dust from the engine before you add the synthetic oil.this whole process should take about 3-4 hours max, thats the total time that that E.O.S. will be in your engine!

[QWKDTSN]

Gotcha! Thanks for the clarification! I'm very worried about this whole process because I've never broken in an engine before and I want everything to go perfectly. The clash of recommendations between you and GM just worried me. I feel a lot better now! Thanks again.