Gettin ready to fire up a fresh 383, all enw internals and everything.

What do YOU do to break in a motor?

General consensus seems to be upon first firing, 20 mins in park/neutral at or above 2000 rpm, varying rpms.

Then everyone's ideas seem to scatter.

What do you do?

I was waiting for you to post this (saw it coming you might say http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/wink.gif)

http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/Forum23/HTML/002783.html

o dear. now that thread makes me wanna mash on it after the cam break in.

what to do, what to do??????????

I gues im gonna try to make some aggressive mid-throttle accel/slow downs on the 1st test drive to help seat the rings, then drive her easy, under 4500 rpms for around 500 (or 100) miles, and then let her rip...better safe than sorry i guess

Lucky ******* lol. I second putting in the royal purple after its all said and done. I used to be a bit of a skeptic on gains when it came to synthetic fluids. My friend showed me some dyno pull papers on a few bikes and sleds and merc boat motors. He races a boat part time and royal purple gives him all kinds of crap.I'm now a believer.

Prime the oil system while turning the engine over by hand, prime the carburetor, connect up the coil, fire it up, break in the cam for 20-30 minutes, keeping the RPM up between 2000-2500 (do not go below 2000 RPM for the first 20 minutes), change the oil, replace the filter, cut open the old filter to see if there is an inordinately high amount of metal in it, run another 30 minutes and change the oil and filter again. Once again check the filter for any large amounts of metal. If all is good, change the oil at 500 miles, then regularly at 3000 mile intervals.

Also, it's a good idea to use a straight weight oil, like 30W instead of 5W-30. Supposedly it helps the rings seat better.

1. set timing
2. pull it out on the road
3. straiten it out
4. cross fingers
5. floor it!

Hmmm , typical breakin scenario:
Start motor,, quickly shut it down and fix a gushing leak of some vital fluid. Start motor again and try to dash between the drivers compartment and under hood without the damn thing dieing. Start motor again,, and attempt to operate carb linkage with left toe while turning key with right hand (while laying across drivers side fender) Giving carb idle speed another twist,, quickly check timing but find that 9/16" wrench is the ONLY one missing from the tool box. Shut motor down look for tools for 20 minutes. Now were on a roll,,,, start motor again, set timing, bring idle speed to 1800+, and give sigh of relief that oil pressure finally came up to where you expected. About 10-12 minutes into cam breakin you see coolant temp in the 'oh shit' range and start spraying the radiator with water, now you remember to place fan in front of car to blow fresh cool air at the radiator! With a quick check under the car to see what hoses you forgot to tighten,,, you weigh the temptation to goose the throttle, vs. the memory of those imortal words of Mr Scott "Aye Captin,, if I we keep this up she's gonna blow".

LMAO,, probably more true than I would care to admit.

taht was good Marv!!

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by Mwilson:
taht was good Marv!!</font>

And that's about how it goes too!

Thefed: one more thing I do is remove the thermostat housing and fill er up with coolant. You get much less chance of air pockets and running hot.

once your sure you have oil pressure slowly pour a 1/2 quart of motor oil thru the carb this will help with the ring seating

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by Pc3:
once your sure you have oil pressure slowly pour a 1/2 quart of motor oil thru the carb this will help with the ring seating </font>

i'll stick with gas thru the carb i think

I agree with the 2200-2500 varying RPMS keeping an eye on the oil press., fuel press., temp. and leaks for 20 min. then change the oil. Check for metal and stuff in the filter. After that, take it easy for the first 200 miles and change the oil again. Check for metal and stuff in the filter. Then, get it to running temp and hit the gas like you are trying to put out a cigarette, try to keep it straight and go through the gears. If it holds, you are golden.

My buddys 383: Ran it for 15 minutes, did not check the temp. radiator cap blew and a column of coolant shot straight up and landed square in the carb.

Yes vary the RPM when breaking in cam between 2000 and 2500 but every time you change rpm rev it up a little. The reason for doing this is because at 2000 RPM the oil is just trickling out but when you rev it up it will throw oil everywhere and lubricate everything. After breaking in the cam you can change the oil and check the filter then put 500 miles on before your next oil change and then go to your normal 3000 mile oil change intervals.

During the first 500 miles drive the car how you intend on driving it dont keep it below 4500 unless you are never going to take it over 4500. Also don't drive it at any one speed for an extended period of time. No long cruises for the first 500 mi.

This is what we recomend to people at the machine shop where I work. The people who follow our directions never have any breakin related problems the people that dont listen generally have some sort of problem.

I highly recommend using some EOS. So does GM as its required for warranty on all crate engines. The EOS mostly replaces the lead that is no longer found in oils. As soon as they removed the lead, cam/lifter failures became much more common. Lots of engine builders and cam cos wont warranty engines w/o using EOS.
Do a google search for "engine oil supplement" and you will find lots of info.


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Currently Camaroless

ONE more break in question, since I am hoping to fire up my motor by next week. My biggest fear is wiping out the cam (even though I specifically didn't buy a comp cam, lol). How long does the assembly lube stay on the cam? Like how much can I turn the engine over before initial start up?

If you're within a month of when you put it on there, I wouldn't worry too much about it.