The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop First start up of rebuilt engine.

I know that there is another thread going on right now with a gentleman and his first start on his engine. Rather than hijacking his thread I wanted to stat my own. So I'm going to start my rebuilt engine for the first time this coming Tuesday, I want to make sure I give the Cam the best chance of surviving it's initial Break In. My engine has a straight 30W oil in it now, I bought a bottle of Lucas Break ( Zinc ) in additive to add to the oil for the initial start. I know that I will be removing the distributor to cycle the oil through the engine before starting it.
My question is this: Upon adding this break in additive and using a drill bit for circulating the oil, should I let it recirculate for an extended period of time to mix the additive with the oil. Or is it ok to just add it, prime till I get oil out the top of the rockers and let the rest of the mixing happen with the oil while it's running.
This also might be a stupid question, but....
Is having an oil filter inline going to trap the Zinc Additive.....

If you are priming with a electric drill, run it till you see oil flowing from each rocker arm, pull the rocker cover to be sure its oiling.

Additives will mix really quickly and the filter will not trap zinc, all oils have zinc, just not as much as they use to.

While priming the engine, rotate it slowly, two complete turns, this will fill all the hydraulic lifters if its has them. If its a solid lifter cam, you need not rotate it. Pulling the spark plugs makes it easier to turn and lets you find #1 top dead center easy. Watch the rocker arms as it rotates for oil and sequence. Stop when #1 cylinder intake and exhaust valves are closed and #1 piston is up.

Be sure the carb is full of fuel, battery is charged 100%, and coolant is full (no air bubbles). Set timing by ear once started and get the rpm up ASAP.

Do not prime or rotate the engine till you are ready to start it. Plan on at least 1 hour or more. Prime it the very last step before starting.

Have a hose handy to cool the radiator if it starts getting hot, DO NOT SHUT OFF if you can avoid it, don't let it get hot either! Have cooling fans if you don't want to get radiator wet. I find on my test stand that three electric fans along with cooling water from the hose works pretty good. I can keep 462 cubic inches cool at 2000 rpm for 20 minutes.

Good luck with your project.

Joe

Thanks for the reply and the advice. I'm actually going to take my truck to a local Automotive shop for the initial startup. This Automotive shop was recommended by a popular engine building business here locally. My concerns were making sure that Zinc Additive was going to be mixed well enough to be affective. The engine and Distributor are all setup on #1 cylinder, radiator and water jacket are primed with coolant and will bring along another gallon of coolant for them to top off. Man, I'm soo excited and nervous to get this engine going I can barely stand it !!!! I have put soooooo much time and effort to get this truck going. It was just a shell of a truck when I got it and to have come this far........ Woo Nelly, it feels like Christmas Eve when I was a kid ( I'm a lot older now LOL )

I used brad penn break-in oil, there is no zinc additive to mix up as it is, well, break-in oil it is already in there. I am not sure how much it cost per quart, but 6 quarts and 2 filters was $80. But for the future oil changes I put the additive in the oil in a gallon jug and mix it before I put it in the engine

Brad Penn is great oil to use. Its one of the top recommended oils for break and and racing. I run standard everyday oil in my 250 with a little Comp cams additive.

The oilwarehouse.com has the best price for Brad Penn oil.

Back to the original post, sounds like a good plan on getting your truck started. If you don't do this all the time. it can be pretty nerve racking. Hope it works out OK.

Joe

Hah! I think that's probably my thread you're referring to! Now that I've got it all sorted out, I can pass on some of what I learned from it.

First off, with the Lucas, I poured half the 10W into the engine, and then added the Lucas right to the jug. Swirled it around, and then poured some through the pushrod holes to make sure they hit the lifters and cam.

If you already added your zinc to the engine, then you're probably fine, just make sure to check that the oil level is right AFTER you've primed the engine. Like Joe said, prime it with a high RPM drill until oil comes out of the rockers.

An inline filter shouldn't be a problem, as that's basically what was stock on the 235 back when zinc was naturally in the oil and it didn't do anything to filter it out as far as I know.

The mistake that I made was turning the engine over too many times and then not initially running it for the entire 20-30 minutes since I didn't have it fully hooked up. As they mentioned in my thread, the camshaft relies on the high RPM to sling oil on it for the initial period, so as long as you keep turnovers to a minimum and do the 20-30 minute stress test at 2500-3000 RPM with no idling, then you'll be on golden pond.

Good luck man! If this is your first time rebuilding an engine, then I can imagine what you're feeling. That first start was a doozy of a feeling.