Last fall, I started the camshaft break-in. It was going well, until a plug wire caught on fire after about 5 minutes of running. We had to shut it down and put it out with an extinguisher.

I didn't have a solution for the plug wire heat issue until it was too late. There was no more time before winter and I had to wrap it up.

I want to finish the break-in soon, so that I can finish the car. If the cam fails, I don't want to put any more time or money into the car until next year, so it's a priority.

What do I need to do to finish? Should I be pulling the intake and re-lubing the cam and lifters, or will a simple pump priming and restart be all that I need to do?

Yes I would re lube everything. That is way too long to have sat for me.

What about the poor oil filter, should I replace it?

I'm concerned about how much assembly grease could actually end up in it once I re-lube everything.

5 minutes... enough time to wipe off the lube, but not enough to breakin anything.
Re-lube. And change the oil/filter.

no to steal this thread but whats the rule of thumb on break in of a cam? 30 minutes? ive heard take off inter valve spring as well but im lazy do i really have to?

no to steal this thread but whats the rule of thumb on break in of a cam? 30 minutes? ive heard take off inter valve spring as well but im lazy do i really have to?

search for proper break in.

20-30 mins is good practive.

what are you spring pressures?

but im lazy do i really have to?[/
go and pick a new hobby.

no to steal this thread but whats the rule of thumb on break in of a cam? 30 minutes? ive heard take off inter valve spring as well but im lazy do i really have to?

If you're running double valvesprings, then sure, you can take out the inner for break-in.
BUT... don't confuse the 'damper' of a standard valve spring with a dual valve spring. That flat-sheetmetal coil inside your valvesprings is NOT a spring. That is to dampen valvetrain harmonics.
And I'm lazy too.. but after having wiped out an entire engine with a bad camshaft... I can't afford to be that lazy or cheap again.

If it was running before you shut it down, that means the timing is all setup and ready to go then right? Mark the distrubutor, add a new plug wire. How high dollar of an engine is it? If its a simple cam swap on an old engine (and this is just me), i'd run a 1/2 bottle of lucas into it. Prime the oil system really well, stab the distributor back into it and hopefully fire on the first or second revolution, and resume break-in. I personally wouldn't worry about relubing, but I've never had a problem chewing up any lobes, so I could be wrong to.

It's a fully machined and rebuilt 355 with new AFR Eliminator heads and almost all new parts.

http://craig.backfire.ca/images/750/autos/chevrolet-caprice-1982/engine-rebuild/IMG_0977.jpg

before you do anything, what are your spring pressures? If they are dual springs, they are probably very stong and you may need to remove the inner. If it is single with a damper, then you are probably OK.

Either way, prime the oiling system an use a break in type oil.

I'd say pull the intake off, back off the rockers, then tame out the pushrods/lifters one at a time and with a small brush 'paint' as much of the cam lobes with break-in lube as you can...

looks like the damper is what i was thinking about sorry again to jack the thread, im not quite lazy just didnt wana take the heads off before and after the break in (i dont have one of those funny spring compressors that can be used with the head s on) guess i should invest thanks anyways

If you want to be super anal pull the distributor and reprime the engine turning crank by hand 90 degrees every minute or so. Reinstall distributor and fire it up. Tearing the engine down is a waste of time. Just basing this on 15 to 20 years of dyno work for what its worth.

If you want to be super anal pull the distributor and reprime the engine turning crank by hand 90 degrees every minute or so. Reinstall distributor and fire it up. Tearing the engine down is a waste of time. Just basing this on 15 to 20 years of dyno work for what its worth.

Agreed.
I personally would definitely pull the distributor and reprime the oiling system.
I would probably add an extra qt of Joe Gibbs break-in oil or other ZDDP additive.
Drop the dizzy in, fire it up and finish break-in.

I assure you that GM didn't spend 20 minutes breaking in every flat tappet cam they ever installed.

5 minutes of run-in time has probably taken care of any break-in anyway IMO.

Another vote for making sure spring pressure is minimal.

Inner springs (not to be confused with dampers) are gone for now, so the spring pressure should be nice and low.

The engine has 7qts of Joe Gibb's BR oil in it already as well.

I don't mean to get off the subject, but how did the plug wire catch on fire? Header? Just curious.

AFR heads have spark plug holes closer to the exhaust port, just like Vortec heads. My spark plug boots get very close on about 5 cylinders. #5 is the one that caught fire badly, but after shutdown we noticed that most of them were starting to bubble and were minutes from catching fire themselves.

I've since bought those sock things that you put over the plug boots to protect them. Here's hoping...

Surprised it got that hot to light up a spark plug wire within 5 minutes in addition not being underload.

Funny as a kid I replaced a lot of cam's, never remember a breakin period, we basically drove it. Then again we had no Internet back then!

I hope the remaining break-in goes well for you. Tearing down a motor because of a wiped cam sucks big time! Good luck.

Why would priming the engine not be enough? I have a primer thing from Speedway motors that you attach a drill to and it pressurizes the oil gallerys enough to show pressure on my gauge. Would that work in a situation like this?

I hope the remaining break-in goes well for you. Tearing down a motor because of a wiped cam sucks big time! Good luck.

If that happens, show is over, I have to leave the car for _another_ year before I can continue.

Inner springs (not to be confused with dampers) are gone for now, so the spring pressure should be nice and low.

The engine has 7qts of Joe Gibb's BR oil in it already as well.

Fire this thing up and hold RPM, then get back to us with great results.

Prime it with a drill and hit the key.

I did this route myself building oil pressure first. Same thing for my recent startup I had hot wire off while I turned motor over to build pressure. Once it pegged 40 lbs pressure for a time I let if fire.

GL

I did this route myself building oil pressure first. Same thing for my recent startup I had hot wire off while I turned motor over to build pressure. Once it pegged 40 lbs pressure for a time I let if fire.

GL

I would highly discourage this for a new engine startup.
You would be better off to just be sure it is full of suitable oil/additive and fire it up. Let the assembly lube do it's job for the 4-5 seconds it would take to get oil to everything, instead of wiping the lube off the cam lobes while cranking and then not having enough oil pressure, crank rpm to sling oil on the cam.

It's not that hard to pull a distributor and do it right.

I am definitely going to pull the distributor and prime it that way.

My only debate here is, do I go to the trouble (and risk) of taking all of the lifters out and re-lubing them? I am leaning toward "no" simply because it doesn't seem like it would help much, and it just raises the chances of me dropping one, getting the valve lash wrong, or some other similar screw-up.

I am definitely going to pull the distributor and prime it that way.

My only debate here is, do I go to the trouble (and risk) of taking all of the lifters out and re-lubing them? I am leaning toward "no" simply because it doesn't seem like it would help much, and it just raises the chances of me dropping one, getting the valve lash wrong, or some other similar screw-up.

I'll take the drama out and give you some facts given your application.

The frist 5 mintues determined if you were going to wipe a cam lobe. That's where the damage took place.

Second, addembly lube protects until oil flow is achieved. At least that's the theory.

Third, if you price the oiling system and get oil flow up to all the rockers and fire it up after that you are golden.

The only reason I'd tear the intake down on a situation like this is if I thought I was loosing a cam. I'd want to verify any damage on the lobes. It's easy to see.

I took out two lifters at random and found that they were covered in oil still (yes, I mean on the bottoms). I am going to prime the pump, and then fire it up as-is to finish the break-in.

Change the filter and filler up with Joe Gibbs BR oil, there's tons of ZDDP in it and there's no need to add GM EOS and prime then fire it up. The Military uses Joe Gibbs oil in all their vehicles since they sit alot and this oil gives them the protection so there is no worrying about dry starts. Yeah, it's pricy.

http://www.joegibbsracingoil.com/products/breakin/index.html

The Military uses Joe Gibbs oil in all their vehicles since they sit alot and this oil gives them the protection so there is no worrying about dry starts.http://www.joegibbsracingoil.com/products/breakin/index.html


Who told you the military uses JG oil in all their vehicles?

Read on their site. http://www.joegibbsracingoil.com/download/HRbrochure.pdf

Higher levels of Zinc (ZDP) than regular passenger car oils. Delivers proper anti-wear protection for older style push-rod and flat-tappet engines.
Superior camshaft wear protection chemistry. The same wear protection found in Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil which has powered Joe Gibbs Racing to multiple NASCAR Championships.
Uses the same oil additive technology developed for the U.S. Military for storing and shipping their combat equipment. Protects against rust and corrosion so your engine is protected even when it’s not running.
Synthetic formula provides the best characteristics of mineral oil without the unwanted saturates that can lead to sludge and varnish, and it provides improved cold-start protection compared to conventional oils.

Read on their site. http://www.joegibbsracingoil.com/download/HRbrochure.pdf


Uses the same oil additive technology developed for the U.S. Military for storing and shipping their combat equipment.


I don't know how you come up with the military using Joe Gibbs oil from that sentence.
It says the same "technology", not the same oil. I guess the fact that they use oil can mean they use the same technology. :rolleyes:

I've worked on a bunch of military vehicles and we never used JG oil. Everything from recycled oil to Delo.