I was at a friends house last night just in time to hear his fresh 468 solid cam roller motor fire up for the first time.
After running it for about 15-20 minutes between 2 & 3000 RPM's we did some timing & mixture adjustments.
The car didn't have 30 min. of run time & we went out to "see" how it runs.
This is a primered 70 chevelle street racer with a T-400, 4000 stall, 4:11's in the rear with some ET street slicks.
I'm thinking we're going to baby it around for a few miles, right?
Not this guy. He starts flogging it a mile from the house, and I mean hard. I'm grabbing for the 5 point harness and fast!
He slows down a little, to a crawl, and hammers the crap out of it again.
I'm thinking Jesus, he's gonna blow it up. I saw the shift light twice set at 6000.
But it seemed to run fine.
Neither one of our wifes could slap the **** eaten grin off our faces, but it got me to thinking.
How do you guy's break in your race motors?
I've broke in alot of street, daily driver motors but I was unsure about a race motor. I've been told by a couple of guy's to just run them like they were meant to and they'll be fine. I also thought a straight weight like 40W was the way to go on initial break in. But he was using 20W-50W.
Any comments?

[This message has been edited by stevo camaro (edited 07-07-2002).]

Our method for street cars is to drive it around the block to check for fluid leaks and if everything looks good, we run the snot out of it a few good times on our "testing loop". After that initial run, then I do the usual varied RPM and loading the motor to seat the rings. The reason we run 'em right a way is because I'd rather find out there's a problem right away than a few weeks later after I've babied for a few hundred miles. That's just the way I've done it.

I agree, "Break 'em in like you're gonna run'em".

If something isn't right, it's going to fail....doesn't matter if it's babied for 500 miles or flogged right off the bat.

We've built circle track motors that were just started, warmed up, and driven on the trailer....hours later they were screamed at max RPM...often lasting all season
with just normal maintenance.

Would I like to make a few dyno pulls first?...sure...but that's not always possible for $$$ and time reasons.


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Don~ ZZ430DropTop (http://hometown.aol.com/zz430droptop67rs)
~~~~and~~~~
70 RS/Z28 (http://hometown.aol.com/performancespecs)
67 RS/SS Convertible, 70 RS/Z28

After I installed the ZZ3 crate engine in my Corvette, the first place it went was to the drag strip. It's been there ever since, without one lick of trouble. I did the same thing with my freshly rebuilt 302 Z engine. It's either right, or it ain't.

ZZ430 said it best.....

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-Anthony-
My 69 (http://www.camarogenerations.com/memberfiles/sheets.html)
Camaro Generations member

It depends on whether or not you are going to mind rebuilding the engine again in a few years. If you don't care, then yeah give 'er hard. If you want to keep that engine for years to come, I strongly suggest being kind to it for the fist 1000 K or so. I prefer to just go on a bit of a vacation, bring some oil and filters along and take 'er out on the highway to go somewhere far. You know, make it enjoyable at least, maybe go to another town to kick back for a couple days, and let the casual driving do the breaking in for you. You can always change the oil and filter at any given time too. My thoughts are that if I am going to put 3 grand into an engine, I bloody well am going to want to keep it in good shape for a long while.

As all the rest stated here, ZZ430, Kyvox, bracewink. drive it like ya stole it!!!

I tend to agree, every motor I've built, SBC, Pontiac 400, B&S, Nissan 300ZX, Honda M/C, etc., after initial cam breakin, it's pedal to the metal, good firm throttle. Nary a problem with any of them.

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Everett 68/350/PG/11.90/115mph

I'm one of them 1000 miler guy's! I give it something like a 1000 miles, then start hammering on her. Works fine. I change oil at about 300 miles while watching the oil pressure gage to get all the crud out of the engine, then run the oil I want to use. pdq67

Fire it up. Warm it up. Tach it up!!

My engine builder breaks in hydraulic lifter motors with the usual 20 - 25 minutes of 2000-2500 RPM and then it hits the dyno to rev limit. It makes me think that if he thought he was going to hurt something, he wouldn't do that.

Last engine I had built was done the same way. Normal cam break in, then it was straight to full fledged dyno pulls (he even let me watch.) He told me that he put more of a load on the engine than I ever could, so that was piece of mind enough for me. 40,000 miles later when I sold it, no problems!

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68 Coupe, 350 4-speed
Jim's Camaro Corner (http://www.personal.psu.edu/jxu109/)

It seems like an engine would not need to be babied for any real length of time but the manufacturers always said to do a long break in.

I usualy do the cam break in pretty much to the book. With my numbers matching DZ-302 I have been babying it for a few hundred miles so far. I probably will be scared to rev it to 7000 RPM the first few times for sure. After that I imagine I will relax a bit and have some fun. I am such a chicken with this engine! I just can't take the thought of a great big hole in the side of the block http://www.camaros.net/forum/eek.gif

I must say the Edelbrock Performer RPM engine recieved NO MERCY after cam break in though! Seems fine.

-Mark.

All this "run 'em like you stole it" break in stuff sounds like fun but think about a minute. You just put new bearings, cam, lifters, rings, pistons, . . . everything in a newly machined block. There is cam lube all over the place, some stray dirt and metal shavings (NOBODY assembles a perfectly clean motor) and microscopic imperfections in bearing surfaces, cylinder walls, and cam lobes that all need to be worn smooth.

At least do your cam break in, check for leaks after a short drive and change the oil before you start pounding on it!

But that's just my opinion.

We've always broken in the cam, set timing,fuel levels, idle, etc......easy run around the block.....readjust the valves with a warm engine.....change oil and filter for reasons Eric said....ensure no fluid leaks....quick check of nuts and bolts, just to be sure (esp header bolts, they always seem to need retorquing)....THEN....Hammer Time!

At least do your cam break in, check for leaks after a short drive and change the oil before you start pounding on it

thats what i have done,and i also used 80% water,instead of 50%/50...
i would run till temp normal. drain oil,and radiator, change oil filter,and add coolant;new oil,and filter,and then check the timing,look for leaks:
Then go out and run it a bit!!! http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

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'67 RS 427,4 Speed
Disc brakes,console, fold down rear seat,heater,
Radio Delete, Cowl hood,front,rear spoilers,
Black/black; white bumblebee stripe
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/cavemanmoron/vwp?.dir=/camaro+pics&.src=ph&.dnm=67rscamaro427email.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/cavemanmoron/lst%3f%26.dir=/camaro%2bpics%26.src=ph%26.view=t

I think I'll have the motor done last. Do you guy's think a fresh motor on a engine stand for a year or better is allright or not?

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Steve
67 396 race car project
67 SS 396,4-sp mothballed for resto
67 RS 327,4-sp
72 RS 350/350, under current resto
69 4X4 suburban 350,4-sp
73 3/4 ton 454/400
Stevo Camaro's Toy (http://www.geocities.com/stevocamaro)
Our Muscle Cars (http://community.webshots.com/user/steve_lynell)

its not a good thing to leave the valves in one place for extended period. Kind of hard on the springs.. but if it was turned regularly or not had valves lashed.. it should be good.


Breakin is matter of personal preference.. after cam and lifters have stablized. Whatever you do just change the oil after about 20mins.

The timing for this topic is perfect I've got about 3 miles on my motor right now and a little nevous about getting into it, but this topic is reasuring.