What is everybody using for engine break in oil? I/m getting ready to fire my freshly rebuilt 390 I'm looking for advice on what to run in this engine to break it in with no problems. Thanks Alot --Joe
Non-synthetic Brad Penn or Vavoline racing oil (make sure it says its specific for off-road use on the bottle) and a bottle of CompCams break-in additive. Do the break-in as usual, dump the filter and oil, reload with the same 'mix' and a fresh filter and drive it like a sane human being for 500 miles.....dump the oil and filter and start your normal oil change interval. If your extra anal like me change the oil/filter again at 1500 miles and then LET THE BEATINGS BEGIN! *All* current on-highway oils (including Rotella T made since late '07) have reduced levels of zinc and sulfur. The use of off-road racing oils and oils specifically designated for older diesels still has the good stuff in it. One word of caution is that most racing oils are formulated with less detergent/surfactacts in them meaning that they'll build up sludge qiucker and won't 'carry' as much dirt as typical on-highway oils. Those of us who change out regularly at 3K shouldn't see any issues with that, however, folks who are changing out at 5K or 7.5K might see some long term issues. -Bigchief.
Exactly what he said but be sure NOT to use a Fram filter. Use a Wix. Here a link for some explanation... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256628
I just used some Joe Gibbs (BR) oil on a dodge. It is designed with lots of zinc for flat tappet cams. When the engine gets hot the oil pressure drops down to about 25. The first time this happened it scared me, but it started off high again cold and then went back to 25 hot. I did it in two sessions of about an hour each. Engine got nice and hot, so I'm sure the cam got a good breakin.
I used a tube of assembly lube from Oreillys (forget the brand), and gooped-up everything during assembly. It all disappeared after a few minutes.
GM has a new part number for Engine Oil Supplement. E.O.S. Assembly Lubricant #88862586 Gr.8.800. I recently purchased four bottles from a local Chevy dealer. The FOGGER
Buy off the shelf oil and add a bottle of ZDDPlus sold by an Alliance Vendor here, or EBay or Eastwood. Its got more zddp than GM EOS and it's cheaper. See their web site at www.ZDDPlus.com
EOS has been reformulated & reintroduced w/in the last 6 months - I have seen no info on zinc for it. Another vote for Brad Penn
Go to a parts store and look for the old diesel oil with code CI-4 (Not CJ-4-see below) The last time I looked, there was a lot of it still on shelves. May not be Rotella T as they switched to the CJ-4. Based on a study recently published, the CJ-4 oil supposedly has more ZPPD than regular oil produced in the mid 80's, so it should be ok to use. www.ctci.org, click on Gil's Garage, click on Engine Oil Part 2
You cant beat the combination of GM oil supplement and Lubriplate. Lubriplate can be purchased in a variety of weights. I had alot of Circle track engines that were always broke in with both mentioned above and always had great results. I had one engine builder ask me if i wanted to rerun the bearing on a freshen up. He couldnt belive how they looked. I actually told him about the lubriplate!
yea you can. Joe Gibbs breakin oil. No supplement needed. Supplements and oil have to be pre-heated to mix properly.
Valvoline VR-1 racing oil has plenty of ZDDP. I also add a bottle of STP, the red bottle not the blue bottle. The red four cylinder formula has more ZDDP. I've not had a cam failure yet.
Was using brad penn penn grade exclusively but now using cenpeco has alot more zinc,heard thru the vine brad penn cut the zinc content,thats why i switched .
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