Cam break in

[lampy]

Any one with thoughts or opinions on cam break in, I'm about to install and fire up my carburated 3.1 ironhead. The machinist who bored my block and ordered my engine kit said motor oil now has less zinc in it and that people are having problems with their cams(flat lobes) during break in.He said to use an addative in the oil for the first 500 mi. recomended a lube from Crane cams.I lubed the cam on install, and will use the addative for break in just wanting more opinions than this guy's.
Thanks, Rick
PS; after some research found that STP oil treatment has ZDDP in it wich is a zinc addative, anyone use it?

[sil]

i have heard of people using deisel oil
wouldnt do it though

you could use motorcycle oil
msut be MA on it not MB
expensive though

it hink you start it, then bring the rpm up very slowly till ya get to 1800 or 2000 rpm,(within a couple minutes) then shut the motor off and check all the fliud levels
start it up and drive her easy for a coupel thousand kilometers
unless you have new bore and rings, then you want to break in cam as i mentioned, then do about 6 hard accels, decels (do not rev it out) just load up those rings, drive it easy after that for a couple thousand miles

everyone has there own way of breakin in
if you want to follow your own way or someone elses thats fine.
but i highly suggest doing the ring seating with a few hard accel, decels, without reving the motor out, 4.5 grand max

after, when your driving easy for the couple thousand miles, never hold your throttle steady....

and change your oil and filter like you change your underwear, for the first 4000k anyways

[Superdave]

don't forget to prime the oil pump..


yes, flat tappet cam break in.. once you get the engine running then take it up to 2K RPM for a few minutes. This wears off the coating on the cam, make sure the lifters get pumped up and wears the lifters to the cam lobes.

Some people say 5 minutes, some say 20. Somewhere around there is fine..

after that's done i always change the oil and filter right then. Drive it around for a bit to shake it down, put a good 50 miles on it or so then change the oil again.

The most important thing is not to abuse it for a while, you are also breaking in the bearings and seating the rings. too high of RPM"s can glaze the cyl walls and the rings won't seal right for a long time.

[SappySE107]

Diesel oil has what you need, as it still has all the additives the normal oil doesn't now, which is critical for break in. There are plenty of ideas on break in procedures, from taking it easy, to getting the RPMs up and the letting the engine brake back down (keeping it in first). Changing the oil often is the way to go for first 1000. Initial break in, change oil and filter. 25 miles, repeat. Then 250 more miles, then 750 more miles, then 1500, and then every 3-5k after that. You will have a lot more metal in the oil until everything has broken in.

[ForcedFirebird]

You should be engine breaking during those decels, too . If you have an auto, you will have to pay attention while seating the rings.

[sil]

yes, hard accel, decel.... is a must for the rings, do that AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, DO NOT OVERREV
the rings have on the top a cutting edge, and if you dont take advantage of those youll lose em and the seating wont be as good if you just baby it

also these days the honing process leaves a much finer smaller cross hatch, and this wears down FAST, take advantage of the cutting edge on the rings... break in the cam first cuase you chance ruining the cam if you seat the rings first by hard accel,decel

the decel process brings oil to the side of the piston, and also sucks up the metal shavings and blows them out the exhaust, instead of collecting between the ring seat and piston

[Guest]

Am I the only one that likes to rev between 2000 and 4000 RPM on first start and break in?

And I'll continue doing it that way, since my cam that I just took out lookes like new after 20,000+ Kms.

I never let the engine idle, just as soon as it fired imediatly reved it, then varied the RPM for the first 20 minutes of break in, unfortunatoy there were a few snags with fluid leaks and such, so it wasn't a continuous 20 minutes, but the last 10 or so was continuous.

[Ortie666]

Well if we want to get technical, ur suposed to remove the internal valve spring, compleatly drain lifters oil, prime the oiling system( witch wont pump the lifters up,) cake the cam and lifters with assembaly lube, use olny a 1/4 turn of lash, and fluxuate from 2000-2500, that depends on cam style tho lumpy low end tourque would be alot less.. 1500-1800.. of course u dont have to do everything i said but that is the propper way, just keep the rev's up, it releives stress on the cam.. make sure it gets up to, or past opperating temp, and use staright 30 oil if avalibale, if notus shityest conventional oil to speed up prosses of wearing, then use synthetic after 2nd oil change

[gectek]

u are supposed to able to use the shell rotella t and it will use the zinc that is still in it to bring about the oxidation necessary, there was a big article on this in last months hot rod mag, or car craft or one of those. they said use that for about 50 mi i think to break it in and yah i would run it at 2k for 20 mins to break it in, thats what we do at the school to break all of our new cams in for the rebuilt engines.

[kill_them_all]

Just make sure everything is lubed, pushrods on lifters, etc... Hook up an oil pressure gauge to verify pressure, take it to 2000 - 3000 rpm for 10-20 minutes. Seat the rings with a couple hard accels.

[lampy]

Cool, thanks for the input everyone.Ortie666 first I've heard about the lower rpm's with the low end torque cam, thats what I put in so I'll keep her below 2k for cam break in.
Thanks again
Rick