New motor startup and break-in

[piantm]

looking for advice on what steps to make as I start my new motor up. Complete rebuild, all new parts, assembled gradually over the last year. Ample assembly lube as req'd during build. No oil in motor yet.

 

[moparleo]

What do you have ? LA or RB? Hydraulic cam, solid, roller ? Stock rebuild or High performance build ? Standard or electronic ignition? What type of assembly lube was used ?

 

[burdar]

Use a good oil with plenty of zinc. Prime engine on stand with priming rod. Make sure you have good oil pressure and that you have oil up to both rocker banks. You have to turn the crank as you prime because the rockers only get oil at certain crank degrees. Set engine at TDC on #1. Turn distributor so the rotor is dirrectly under the #1 post on the distributor cap. Make sure you have gas at the carb. The engine should start right up. Constantly vary the RPM between 2000 and 2500 for 20 minutes. If a leak developes, shut it off, fix the leak and continue with the break-in where you left off. No need to start over. If it overheats, shut it down and let it cool off. Start again where you left off...no need to start over. Change oil and filter.

 

[moparleo]

Have a fire extinguisher handy. No joke.

 

[piantm]

It's a sroked 340 (416 now). hydraulic cam, edelbrock heads, carb, intake. MSD ignition. Short block put together by machine shop, so don't know what type of lube was used. NAPA No.105 was used for everything else (lifters, rockers).
Engine is in car already. I've got a priming rod. Is it possible to remove/install the oil pump drive shaft with the intake manifold installed?

 

[Cazbah362]

Burdar is right on with great advice, regardless.

and yes, long nose pliers

 

[burdar]

You can also use a long flat blade screw driver to lift it up out of the cam gear. Stick the screw driver in the slot and turn. The shaft will rotate up out of the gear teeth.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

Check this thread http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=79793.0
this is what I do .

 

[piantm]

Thanks for the input. Should be starting the motor up in a couple weeks. I'll update when I get there.

 

[piantm]

Finally got the motor started. Thanks for the earlier guidance.

More concerns.......have only ran the motor about 3mins of the suggested 20min break-in time........once for 2mins, once for 1min.......about 1 min into the run, I think the lifters start clicking, I get nervous and shut it down........looking for suggestions on how to proceed. I've got too much money tied up in this thing to screw it up. Before I start it again, I'll be removing the regular oil pressure guage and hooking up a temporary guage that I can see from the enginer compartment

 

[moparleo]

If the rockers are the stock non-adjustable type and you only let it run for a minute, the lifters haven't had time to fill completely with oil yet. Just to be safe, remove the intake manifold so you can see the cam, lifters and pushrods to make sure nothing is broken or out of place. Use some Moly-lube or some type of assembly lube and lube up the cam lobes and lifters where they contact the cam. You can also loosen the rocker shafts up and lube the lifter cups and contact areas of the ushrods, rockers and valve spring tops. Re assemble and as Chryco recommends only the water pump, alternator belts need to be attached during break-in. Recheck everything again to be sure you didn't forget to tighten something up, top all fluids.
Start again and watch the oil pressure with a gauge. If it does not come up in 30 seconds or so, shut it down. If it does, give the lifters another minute or to to prime up. Most builders soak the lifters in oil and manually prime them before install so oil starvation is not an issue. You can even do this when you have the intake off and the rockers shafts loosened up.
Watch your coolant temp and oil pressure.

Good luck with your engine.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=79793.0
This is what I do before starting , Leo has some good advice ... good luck

 

[piantm]

Hughes adjustable rockers, shaft and custom cut pushrods. Lunati cam with hydraulic flat tappet lifters. Pulled the valve covers off last night and went through the rocker adjustment procedure as outlined in the literature that came with the rockers. Found seven seven that were loose. Double and triple checked my work. Will fire it up again this weekend to see what happens.
I was told by Hughes technician to tighten the rocker until the slack is gone, then tighten the adjuster screw one more revolution. I take "removing the slack" to mean the push rod won't bounce around between lifter and rocker. At this same point, the rocker is now making contact with the valve stem. I noticed this seemed to occur just as I was starting to feel tension on the adjustment screw. I suppose I'm begining to preload the lifter at this point. So, I think I did this stuff properly. Any comments?

Haven't built too many motors in my life, so my experience isn't broad, but I'm no dummy either. Sometimes I overthink and worry about stuff too much.

 

[moparleo]

It's OK to be concerned when you aren't sure that something is right. Better safe than sorry. These are common concerns for anybody during initial fire up and break in. Good info for anyone on the site wondering what the best procedure is regardless of engine brand or type. Builds confidence which makes the Mopar experience more rewarding. A good thing to do, regardless of what you are working on is to make yourself a punch list. Kind of like a flight pre check. That way if you get distracted or have to stop for some reason, you can go to your list and be able to pick up where you left off.
No body is perfect and anyone can make a mistake from time to time. Practice makes almost perfect.

 

[piantm]

Got motor started and through the break-in period. Yea. Valve train noise appears to be gone, but difficult to hear over the exhaust leak noise. Found my drivers side, stock cast exhaust manifold is cracked. I think this happened during the break-in run. Dimensions of hte edelbrock rpm heads must the larger than stock, becuase the manifold comes in contact with the head near the mating surface of the head and block. Any way to repair cast iron?
These stock exh manifolds will only be used for 500 miles. Then I'll be putting my beautiful TTI polished headers on (note: I have a another post on this forum regarding avoiding running the TTI headers headers on a new motor for concerns of damaging the ceramic finish).
So, any repair to the stock cast exh manifolds only has to last 500 miles. A couple road trips stretched across a couple weekends should take care of that.

 

[moparleo]

All aftermarket aluminum heads are different externally and most external bolt ons either won't fit or must be modified to fit.
Cast iron manifolds can be fixed by any competent welding shop.

 

[piantm]

crack is worst than I thought. See pic. Think it's salvagable?

 

[moparleo]

That should not be a problem for a good welder.