Other than trying not to run it too hard for the first 5k miles, what is some other tips you all might have?

double cheak all fuel, and vac lines.

Adjust valves to 1/4 turn pre load

Fill carb bowls with fuel

Set baseline timing to 8-10* BTDC

Make sure you have oil in engine (4-6 qt. depending on oil pan)

Make sure you have water/anti frezze in rad.

Fire engine up, and run for 20-30 min. at 2,000-3000 rpm, verying the rpm between 2 and 3 K, DO NOT LET IT IDEL

Set timing to 32-38* total (depening on heads and combo)

Change oil and filter

Drive easy the 1st 2500 miles (not over 55-60 mph) no high rpm's, no long term ideling

Change oil and filter

Drive easy for the next 2500 miles. You can go alittle faster now, still don't dog it

Change oil and filter

Drive norm for the next 5,000 miles, no racing or real hard use

Change oil and filter

Now drive it any way you want too.


Those are the thing I like to do with street engines.

Race engines are fired and ran 30 min to break in cam, oil and filter changed, then rest of the break in happens at the next weekends race in the water box, but race engines don't need or have to last 100, 150, 200K miles, street engines does

I like to:
Break in the cam, 2000-2500 for 20-30 minutes.
Change the oil/filter.
Take it for a test drive. In 2nd gear, accelerate from 20 to 50 then let off, about 6 times. It seats the rings. Then go easy on it for 1000 miles.
Change the oil/filter.
Now you can have some fun, but still don't run it wide open until 1500 miles.
Being anal about the first 4-5 oil changes will pay off. Even if you just use a $2 Tech2000 filter and 88 cent/qt. oil from Walmart. Actually the Walmart oils and filters get pretty good ratings at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

If you break it in right you can run it after about 500 miles.

While you go out for your first drive do this to help seat the rings....if not you will burn oil.

Find a straight road and drive along at around 45 and mash the gas. Speed up to around 55 or 60 and let off of it completely until you are slowed down back to around 45. What this does is creates a good vacuum in the motor that will push and pull the rings in their seats helping them find a good home.

Repeat this process on and off for the first 200-500 miles or so. You don't need to do it every time you are out but do it now and again. I then changed my oil at 1000 miles.

Ya know I'm always amazed at how conservative everyone seems to be with breakin. GM tells you to not drive at a constant speed or demand full throttle / high rpms from the motor for the first 500 miles (average is around 8-9 hours of running). I think someone needs to explain this to the throttle jockeys in the dyno room!

Well the reason why I say 500 miles is ONLY for the rings. The cam is already seated and broken in as it should be. But if you don't break the rings in the right way then you'll get glazed cylinder walls. Then you won't have any more cross hatch pattern and then you get burning oil. If you pound the snot out of it right from the start all the crap that is floating around from the initial break in and stuff will become a problem.

henry, I'm not disagreeing with you in the slightest other than on the ring issue. Todays ring technology is ausome. A good set of Plasma-Moly rings will seal probably before the cam breakin is complete if the bore is prepped right for them. I've done leakdown after the build and again after startup, a couple of warmups and initial breakin. Bringing cylinder sealing up to 1-1/2 to 2% is about as good as I can expect and have seen that even after only 20-30 minutes of running. For a street motor with a standard hone and 're-ring' job I agree, it's going to take a few hours for things to take a good seat. But the mention of 5000 miles seems a little excessive. It won't hurt, but I don't see it as anywhere necessary.

If you look at the SOP for a bracket racer,, build the motor, cam breakin, change oil a couple of times in the first hour or two of running, remove the low side chip and check where 'this' motor stalls the convertor,,, then put it on the trailer and head to the track! From there the thing get's flogged and abused to it's limits. If it comes apart, it's typically because of some little detail that was overlooked, not because it didn't have 5000 miles on it before someone started beating on it. I don't know, just my opinion but after 2-3 hours of running everything has taken as much of a seat as it's going to. Changing oil and filter numerous times during that 2 hours ought to be mandatory IMO.

Your right Marv, you can see the EGT's on the dyno come around pretty quick while you are breaking in the cam indicating ring seal is taking place. If we don't get good ring seal within the first half hour to an hour on the dyno something is drastically wrong.

Two things I have seen, other than a problems in assembly, lead to motor coming back for ring seal problems are temperature related. Engines that don't get up to proper temp for whatever reason can cause problems and even worse engines that have been overheated.

Ditto on the oil, dump the oil after the cam breakin and again after the first couple of dyno pulls. When it goes out the door it's on it's third or so oil fill.

Henry, your right that there can be a lot of crap from breakin sometimes. Hopefully though there is not too much. All this stuff though shows up in the filter when cut and opened up. The main reason we cut open the filters is not to see if they are plugged up but to see what has been caught in there. We mainly are looking for bearing material or other abnormal particles that would indicate a problem soemwhere. If a bearing is getting chewed up you can see it right away when you spread open the pleats.

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70 SS 454 CI Dynoed 684 HP, 702 TQ All Aluminium Fuel Injected Small Block , plus 200 - 500 HP NX nitrous system.

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by night rider:
double cheak all fuel, and vac lines.

Adjust valves to 1/4 turn pre load

Fill carb bowls with fuel

Set baseline timing to 8-10* BTDC

Make sure you have oil in engine (4-6 qt. depending on oil pan)

Make sure you have water/anti frezze in rad.

Fire engine up, and run for 20-30 min. at 2,000-3000 rpm, verying the rpm between 2 and 3 K, DO NOT LET IT IDEL

Set timing to 32-38* total (depening on heads and combo)

Change oil and filter

Drive easy the 1st 2500 miles (not over 55-60 mph) no high rpm's, no long term ideling

Change oil and filter

Drive easy for the next 2500 miles. You can go alittle faster now, still don't dog it

Change oil and filter

Drive norm for the next 5,000 miles, no racing or real hard use

Change oil and filter

Now drive it any way you want too.


Those are the thing I like to do with street engines.

Race engines are fired and ran 30 min to break in cam, oil and filter changed, then rest of the break in happens at the next weekends race in the water box, but race engines don't need or have to last 100, 150, 200K miles, street engines does </font>

One thing I miss here is to pre-lube the engine before the first start-up (correct me if I'm wrong).

camaro71/holland... Good eye. I must have over looked that when I was typing.

Never forget to pre oil/prime before you fire an engine for the 1st time.

Use an old dist. or a store bought oil pump priming tool, and a drill. Turn it clockwise till you see pressure on the gauge, turn crank over by hand 90*, prime alittle, more, turn crank 90*, prime for a few min. till you see oil coming out of the push rods

the poorboys speed shop break in.

start it , break in cam for 30 mins.

change oil.

go to track .

test run to check carb and timing.

go back test again. all works out

test three spray the hell out of it .

about pre oiling. what if you just cranked the engine with the ignition disbaled until oil pressure came up then reconnected things and stated it from there?

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by bryan1970:
about pre oiling. what if you just cranked the engine with the ignition disbaled until oil pressure came up then reconnected things and stated it from there?</font>

This is what we did with my brothers shelby. However we only did this because the Ford oiling system is a PITA.
I advise that you use the correct tool or make one to prelube the engine without having to turn the engine over.
When you do this, you're possibly creating wear on unlubed engine components before they have even been broken in.
If that makes any sense.

The whole idea of pre oiling/priming is to get oil up, and on all the new parts, so when you turn engine over the parts want wear.

If your dis arm the ing., and turn over with starter, yes you will get the oil up, but you'll put alot of wear on the parts till the oil gets to them,

also you'll wipe off the cam, and bearing lube, and that will leave you with metal to metal contact on the cam lobes/lifters, crank journals/bearings.

Pre oil/prime with a drill and right tool.

One more thing you need to do IMO is a can of GMs Engine Oil Supplement (EOS) for the cam break-in. It replaces the lead (and some additives with names too long for me to remember) in the oil that is no longer removed (or added) to todays oils. Do some homework on the stuff. I wont break in a cam without it now. GM requires it for warranty on their crate engines too I think. Not sure what retail is but I only pay a couple bucks for it so its pretty cheap. Also using non-detergent oils is a good idea for break in but I just use regular oils.
Cheers.

[edit] Oh ya, Im 500miles on my new engine in my truck.... its damned hard to keep my foot out of it. Im trying for 1000 before I start to drive it "normal" (AKA abusive).
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Currently Camaroless

[This message has been edited by CoryM (edited January 02, 2005).]