Help breaking a engine in.

Hello all,

I just had my engine rebuilt and i need some advice on breaking it in.
I have:

CSC-264/274 (112*) Hydraulic Dual Pattern Camshaft (from classic inlines)
1.6 rocker arms (from classic inlines)
DUI ignition (classic inline)
Trip weber carburator set up
dual exhaust hooker headers
and a few other little things.

What would be the best way to break this engine in?

JoeJoe44

I bought a long block from Jimmy at Carolina Machine Engines (CME) and his advice was to start out in first gear and slowly increase the RPM from idle to 5000 and the engine would be broken in.

I would change the oil after the 20 minuet cam break in at 2500 RPM; add cam lube at every oil change.

Keep the car under 50 MPH and 3500 RPM for the first 500 miles and slowly vary the RPM/MPH so you never drive at a constant RPM/MPH. Change the oil.

Between 500 and 2000 miles you can increase the RPM/MPH to 4500 and 70 but still avoid constant RPM/MPH. Change the oil.

Thereafter drive the car normally but be gentle. No burnouts or full throttle till after 10,000 miles. Change the oil every 2000 miles.

I recommend a good oil analysis lab. Send a sample at every oil change after the first cam break in oil change. I use Blackstone Labs.

This will give you the longest lasting engine. One other word of advice use a paper air filter not one of those oil soaked foam ones, they let in too much dirt and lead to premature ring failure at 60,000 miles.

One last word. If at any time you hear funny noises, overheating , water in the oil, oil in the water, exhaust in the radiator, leaks or any thing else that seems unusual STOP and find out why.

Have you run that carb setup before? You want to do the break in with a known good and working fuel system even if its not the one you plan to run.

As you will find out there are many ways to do a break in. Some ideas change with technology some have been the same forever, read em all and form your own opinion.

How I have been doing it:

Fill all your fluids (including fuel). Most people run some sort of a cam lube additive for at least the first run. Prime the oil system. Install dizzy. Get it started get the timing set to a safe setting then crank it up to around the 2500 rpm range and hold it there for about 10-15 mins. Keep an eye on fluids, temps, and noises. After that spend some time getting the timing set and mess with your idle mixtures and speeds if needed. Time for a test drive. if its all good a longer drive. Oil change into a clean pan looking for unusual bits. Modern rings and honing dont seem to be too particular on the rest of the break in. It does seem to take around 500 miles before the power really starts to come in.

fordconvert":38k0d10k said:

Have you run that carb setup before? You want to do the break in with a known good and working fuel system even if its not the one you plan to run.

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Yah unlesss those carbs have been pre-tuned I would disconnect the outboard carbs or run a "known good" carb.

There is also the theory that to seat the rings better, drive it like you stole it.
They need some load on them.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Did you use moly rings?

I would use a breakin additive such as one from crane , comp cams or lucas breakin additive, currently available motor oils do not have enough phosphorous or zinc( except some of the racing oils) in them for flat tappet cams. a friend who races nostalgia drags says that most of the racers use the additive at every oil change. I add a bottle at every oil change. pull the distributor and prime the oil pump , I used a 5/16" -- 1/4" drive socket on a speed handle. when you get the engine fired keep at 2000 to 2500 rpm for 20 minutes varying engine speed . its also a good idea to have a mechanical oil pressure guage and a good water temp guage.IF everything looks good after cam breakin check your timing and set. adjust carb and go for a drive. Vary speed as you drive , constant speed and excessive idleing or lugging are not good for initial breakin.After a good long drive I would change the oil and filter then again at 100 miles then 500 miles before going on a regular schedule. I have always used 1000 miles as a rule of thumb before running a new build hard. the tri power weber setup out of the box was way lean for my engine, i had to rejet before continueing breakin . I started on the center carb , blocked the end carbs off with 1 1/2" rubber plumbing test caps from home depot and capped the fuel inlets. . if you have not rejetted the carbs yet this chart will get you closehttp://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52762&hilit=3x1+jetting+table. Good luck . would also like to see some pics or video of the new engine.

Charlie

8) for the initial cam break in you want to use a straight 30 weight oil, non synthetic, with a friction modifier such as the comp cams break in lube. run the engine at 2000-2500 rpm for the first 25 minutes, and do not let the engine idle during this time.

then change the oil and filter using the same 30 weight oil and friction modifier as before.

in the first 500 miles of operation avoid sustained freeway driving as much as possible. change the oil and filter, again using the same oil and friction modifier package as the initial break in.

change the oil and filter again in 1000 miles, and then observe normal change intervals. after your second normal oil change you can switch to synthetic oil if you like, however i would continue to use a friction modifier until you hit the 10,000 mile mark. after that it is optional.

as for how to drive the car during break in, there are two schools of thought;

1: drive carefully, vary the rpms, and avoid high engine speeds.

2: drive normally, but avoid high rpm runs until you hit the 1000 mile mark

both work fine.

Howdy Joe:

Lot's of opinions/recommendations for you. I just wanted to add, that most recommends on break-in are based on a V8 type engine. Our in-line six is laid out quite differently, and better for break-in. The oil from the rockers drains down the pushrods, along with the oil from the hydraulic lifters to the cam. So if your oil passages are open and flowing, the cam will be bathed in oil, which is critical. Since the V8s cam is not directly under any flowing oil, it is necessary to do the 20 minutes at two grand to ensure that oil pressure keeps the cam lubed. The caution to this is to be sure that you do a good cleaning of all the oil flow channels and orifaces on your tear-down and cleaning. That is especially true of the rocker arm shaft.

I recommend, that on initial start up, you leave the valve cover off and watch the oil as it oozes out of each rocker arm from back to front. With light weight oil and pre-primed, it should not take long for oil to be at the front rocker arm.

Enjoy that new engine.

Adios, David

Joe, if your machine shop put the main bearing clearance .0015"-.002" & the rod clearance is close to .0015".

And if you are using plasma moly rings & the cylinders were honed with a final hone & finished using the plateau process then you should prime the oil pump & oiling system with a drill.

Start the engine up, keep it above 2000 rpms using oil with the necessary zinc additives & run it for at least 10 minuites or if the cooling system is full, take it out on the road & drive at varing speeds for several minuites till the coolant temperature stabalizes keeping the rpms above 2000.

Then if no valve tap is heard, take it out & run it up to 500 rpms below redline several times & you will find out real fast if you have any engine issues.

Then if no problems just take it out like you stole it & that will take care of the breakin.

If you never checked on the machine shop clearances, then you better just brake in the camshaft & go from there.

Most racers breakin the engine at the strip. If its built right you will have no problems, if not you will find out real fast if shoddy maching work was done. Outlaw

fordconvert":3v97298b said:

Have you run that carb setup before?

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No haven't. Ill probably just have to break it in with the middle carb only, but it seems like ill have to step up the jets.

Quickersix64: What jets did you use on your carb set up? And did you have to use a fuel regulator? My carter 4070 fuel pump is rated at 6 psi.

JackFish":3v97298b said:

Did you use moly rings?

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Yes I did.

rbohm":3v97298b said:

for the initial cam break in you want to use a straight 30 weight oil, non synthetic, with a friction modifier such as the comp cams break in lube. run the engine at 2000-2500 rpm for the first 25 minutes, and do not let the engine idle during this time.

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I was planning on running Royal Purple synthetic oil in the engine but after reading the posts it seems like it would be best to break it in with a petroleum biased oil. The shop that rebuilt the engine already put in a "break in additive".

Thanx for all the advice. I hope to have it up and running by this weekend. Ill be sure to put up some pics and vids!

I used a mr.gasket regulator set at 3 P.S.I. I am also running the carter fuel pump. the idle jets are .65 in all three carbs, the center main is a .170 and the end mains are .155 . my A.F.R. shows 13.5 during cruise and W.O.T. and 13 at idle. the plugs show a little rich at idle but perfect at cruise. depending on your location ( temp and altitude) your jetting may be a little different but this should get you close.following the advice of other members on this forum who run the tri-power ,I use the center carb to idle on. for the end carbs I backed off the idle speed screws all the way then turned them in until the butterflies stopped sticking ,then closed the idle mixture screws all the way in and backed them out 1/4 turn. I think the center is about 2 1/2 turns out.this is as close to perfect as I have been able to get this combo. as for the oil , synthetic is too "slick" for a proper breakin.

Pre oil it, or crank with no plugs until the oil pressure gauge show pressure.
Fire it up, run for a few seconds, rev it up to 2-2500 rpm a couple of times, check timing, then shut off.
Check for leaks etc, if ok, restart and bed the cam in. You may have to shut it down while doing this if the coolant temp gets too high. Let it cool for a while, then restart and continue the cam run in process.
Once the cam is run in, drive it with a bit of care, dont lug, dont rev too hard, just vary the speed and load a bit.
At 300 miles/500 Km change oil and filter, re check timing/carb etc.
Race/drive it like you stole it.
The bloke that built the engines for the dirt track car I crewed on many years ago used this procedure for street engines he built, and the race engines went from the cam run in, to the oil filter change, to the race track.
Rarely a failure, and performance was always good.

I'm breaking mine in as we speek, brad penn break in oil for 500 miles, then brad penn 15w-40 and away we go, have a 3500 limiter pill in the MSD first 500 miles and then to 5500 pill, broke in cam for about 20 minutes from 2000 to 2500, most important thing is to have a set up you know will run engine in the first 20 minutes without any problems, my first time around I did not do this and my engine suffered, I'm using the 15w40 because I added an extra .001 to the crank and rods, if I were on a budget I would just go and get some cheap non detergent 30 wt and add some ZDDP and drop it after 500 miles and choose something around 10w30 of your favorite flavor with some ZDDP every oil change, I did alot of study as of late and I believe that for our engines that conventional oil with a ZDDP type additive at every oil change is best if you can't afford some of the specialty flat tappet cam oils like brad penn and joe gibbs, I used to believe that rotella and some of the other diesel engine oils were the way to go because of there levels of zinc and phosphorus, but they have to much detergent and soot carring ability and have less of an shear rating than gasoline oils because they have a huge bearing surface compared to our gasoline engines.

How can i keep the RPM between 2000 and 2500 if I dont have a tack?

JoeJoe44":2zzpyqga said:

How can i keep the RPM between 2000 and 2500 if I dont have a tack?

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8) buy yourself a tach/dwell meter, set it up as a tach, and put it where you can read the meter while you run the engine.

A automotive multimeter with a tach function is not that expensive now days. They are also handy for other auto and household projects. A fairly nice digital model is around $50. Actron is a popular brand that places like sears and parts stores sell. Im sure Harbor Freight type of places would have less expensive options. They are just like regular mulitmeters that measure AC volts, DC volts, Ohms, and amps. For the 'automotive' models they add the TACH and Dwell features. If you work on your own car (new or old) or anything else electrical this sort of tool is very handy. Dont forget to check places like pawn shops and craigs list. You can often find the old style 'engine analyzers' for under $20. They are not as handy for other things but work well for basic auto work.

The DUI has a Tach terminal right next to where the power wire goes. You dont need a special connector, the small alligator clip most meters have fit fine and you can also usually just jam a wire in them.