Pre-Flight Checklist:

[strat1960s]

I am about a week or two away from the first firing of my 200 inline 6 since having it rebuilt and slightly modified this last Spring.
Here is a list of everything that has been done so far:
1) Port and Polish Aussie Head
2) adjustable roller rockers
3) Clifford exhaust port divider
4) Isky street/strip cam
5) Bored out block and machining surfaces
6) Spin balancing
7) Weber 38 DGAS 2bbl carb
8) Approx. 1 inch spacer between carb and intake
9) Converted mechanical linkage to throttle and trans kick-down cable

Once I get the car rolling, I plan to take it to an exhaust shop to have pipes welded for the Clifford dual headers.
At this point I am not interested in HP as much as durability and driveability.
Ok, having said all that, here are my questions:
1) Should I use straight distilled water during the timing process or should I add coolant? During the timing process, I will be running with the radiator fan off for safety reasons. It has been suggested that I place a large floor fan in fron of the radiator. Is this neccessary if it is only running for a few minutes at a time?

2) Once I get the motor running and timed, how long should I go before I drop the oil? I know I should be looking for metal shavings as soon as possible, but am I looking at minutes or hours of run-time first? After that how frequently should I drop the oil?

3) Do I need to plug off the vacuum advance hose prior to initial timing of the motor?

4) I plan to try out the Pertronix II and coil. Will this have any affect on the timing of my car? Should I install the Pertronix II and coil before the initial running and timing of the motor?

Has anyone got any suggestions or words of advice? It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all your help so far.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow.... nice setup....

Here is my 2 cents....

1. No I would run a 50% mix (Dist. water and coolant)... just my opinion.. others may disagree... but I say run the engine the way you plan to drive it. I cannot think of why you would run with the fan off? I have timed and worked on my car for years and have never removed one... just watch your butt. the timing light is the only thing you are using in the fan area... keep the cords clear and be smart. If you do run with no fan then I would try to cool the flow somehow?

2. My general rule is 500 miles. Break the cam in then run 500 and change the oil.

3. Yes

4. If you have gone this far then I would... you will have a much easier time setting timing since you can forget about dwell...

5. NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT PART... sounds like your cam is new.. you plan on breaking the cam in first? You should run the car for 20 minutes at 2000 rpms when you first fire it up to break the cam in... do not let it idle in that time... then after the breakin, drop the rpms to idle and tune the car... you can get close if you set to 8-12 degrees initial and run the carb through the basic settings.


I am doing all of this on Monday to pretty much the same setup!

 

[CobraSix]

1) I ran a Mix with mine. Worked great. I would just leave the fan on. So long as you stay clear, it isn't that big of an obstacle.

2) You have to take into account your new cam. Check you install instructions for you cam. Most are 20 minutes at 2000 RPM. Like Jimbo said, don't screw around with timing during this point. Set the timing as best you can before starting it up. Turn the engine by hand to get around 12* BTDC and set your dizzy to be ready to fire.

3) No...set it up like normal...but it doesn't really matter. You're not going to be running very high RPMS on start up, and the vacuum advance won't play that big a factor. I would personally set it up to just minimize possible vacuum leaks from me forgetting to plug something, but it isn't neccesary, so I agree with Jimbo on that one, even though it doesn't look like I do.

4) Put the Pertronix and coil on first. It will help the car start up better causing less damage during start up.

Here is something else I did. I don't know how dry your cylinder walls are. You can pre oil the engine with a drill using the oil pump through the dizzy (remove dizzy). Do a search here to find out more. I did not do that. I personally took some marvel mystery oil and put it in an oil can. I then squirted some in each cylinder as best I could around the walls. I then rotated the engine by hand to give an even coat of the mystery oil on the cylinder walls. I did this because this is what a lot of engine builders used to do. This protects the cylinders better during start up of a new engine. Marvel Mystery Oil is like straight weight 60 or 80, so it doesn't move a lot, so it will stay on the cylinder walls for a little while. It will cause the engine to smoke a little on start up (buy only for like 20 seconds) but you won't here any grinding.

Set your timing as best you can prior to start up. Key is to get it running to break the cam in.

Basically I would change the oil at this interval (miles are total from start up (ie: 1000 miles=1000 miles since you started the engine, not 1000 miles from the 500 mile change):

20 minutes
100 miles
500 miles
1000 miles
2000 miles
4000 miles

Remember, no synthetic oil in your car during the first 20 minutes! Cam break ins usually need conventional oil.

Good luck.

Slade

 

[Anonymous]

i like th e marvel mystry thing. I have used the same trick on startup of engines that have been setting uncranked for long periods of time with great success. I normally squirt some in there and let it set for a bit then turn the engine over with the plugs out to coat the walls nicely. - just make sure there is no junk/dust/debris around that can get sucked into the spark plug hole when doing this-

 

[Anonymous]

I like the marvel oil idea.. I am going to get some....
mine has been sitting for a couple of weeks since it was assembled new...

Thanks for the FYI...

I also primed the oil system today with the drill... that was easy... and it was cool to see the oil burp uo out of the rockers....

but I think the cyls are still a little dry....