So here's a question. I'm getting ready to stuff a new hyd. roller cam in my engine, but the car isn't ready for it yet (no fuel lines, no radiator, no wiring, blah blah blah). So, once the cam and new lifters are installed with the cam assembly lube, will it hurt for the engine to sit on the stand for a while before it is installed in the car and finally running? I'm not talking about a weekend job, I'm talking weeks possibly before the car is ready for the engine to be installed. I don't want the 'sticky' assembly lube to cause things to become "glued" together while it is waiting for the car to be ready.
Not a problem, the assy lube will be where it belongs. On the second issue, all the old Hasting rings sets had the printing re: accel and decel to burnish and draw new oil into the seating surfaces, in this case the rings/cyl walls. Do not maintain one rpm level.
Like pitman said, it won't be a problem. My 289 sat for a year before I fired it up. My concern was not being "glued" together, but with the lube being gone. I called comp cams, and they said fire it up. But I did pull the lifters and re-coated the bottom of each with more lube, just to be safe.
I got a brand new 290 horse 350 from Chevrolet (with a flat tappet cam). There were no instructions on how to break in the engine. I attempted to learn how to perform break in, but no Chevrolet representative could give me an answer.I can't believe the factory ran it for the required time/rpms. Anyhow, I just fired it up and drove it. It ran fine.
Years ago, however, I had a hot Iron Duke engine built, with a hot cam, super duty head, and dual side-draft Webers, etc. Couldn't get the engine to run properly for a decent break in period, and wiped out the camshaft. Turned out the pushrods were too long.
Apart from breaking in the cam, there are as many methods of breaking in the engine as there are engine builders on the Hamb. One buddy of mine leaves them running on his stand for four or five hours. Another guy does it for just an hour. I've heard from several experts that you need to drive it to break it in, take several long hard pulls at the throttle, leaving time for the motor to lube and cool between pulls, which loads up the rings hard, yet lets them cool and wash away any residue or mini-swarf. After that it is done. Run it how you like. Yet other experts tell you to drive it smooth, and below a certain rpm, with no hard throttle, for hundreds of miles. But, this is a different subject than the thread title, and probably covered many times over on the Hamb, so best left to another day.
I believe in the "How to hotrod small block chevy's" book there was a pic of engines on the GM assy line being fired and run on natural gas. Cheaper than gasoline. On a new engine I put a fan in front of the radiator, fire it and keep it about 2-2500 for about 10-15 min. Shut it down drain the oil and new filter and then get it out on the highway and run it. Back in the chrome ring days with a rougher bore finish, it usually took about 500-1,000 mi to seat the rings. The iron rings, should be fine right away. If it doesn't clear up and run fine in the shop during breakin with the iron rings I knew I had a problem. I would still take it out on the hiway and run it normally varying my speed. Then run the crap out of it.
The Jalopy Journal
