Hello Big-Boss
Regarding break-in may I make a few suggestions.
1. One very effective way to assure minimizing break in problems is to send your cam and lifters to Mr. Scott Maine who owns Cam Research in Colorado. His phone number is 303-762-8196. Scott is an outstanding engine builder and a competitor in Engine Masters every year. Scott has engineered and built a machine that pre-breaks your cam in for you. The cam is broke in using increasing pressure against the lifters that are constantly flooded by cool
oil. The lifters are then marked for each lobe location and packaged along with the cam. The cost to do this is approximately $60.00 and shipping. He usually takes 3-4 days to do this then returns it to you. May I submit that is cheap insurance and is worth the time to wait. Scott has done serveral cams for me and I have not had any failures with this method.
Let me point out the not so seen benefits
1. If your engine doesn't fire right up you don't have to worry wbout wiping all the start up lube off your cam and ruining your lobes.
2. You can fire up and go to idle right away if you need to. ( I have a tendency to still run a 2000 with fluctuating throttle for 20 minutes just for good measure though).
3. You don't have to soft spring break in the cam then go through the job of removing and respringing the heads. (This alone makes it worth while.)
4. I would submit that the
oil and filter change after a 20 minute run in is still needed to remove other contaminates.
5. You still need to use a high pressure lubricant on the lifters and lobes when you install the cam to protect it during assemble rotation.
If you prefer to install and break-in in the engine there are some oils out there that will work along with some additives to help. A lot of knowledgable people have already commented on this so I will only submit some options for you.
1. Both Crane and Comp offer a break-in additive that really help. It is like the GM EOS. I have used both but seem to lean towards the Crane. (No good reason why.) The Crane part # is 99003-1. Use one bottle per 5 quarts. Because nothing else is was out there some people would continue to run this with the subsequent
oil changes. Not the best option as it tends to load up between the rings.
2. There is a new additive on the market that is nothing more than the missing
Zinc dialkyl dithiosphosphate in a suspension oil (If I understand this correctly). The claim of this product is it returns 5 quarts of oil to the good SF levels of pre 1988. I am using this now and have not had any failures to date. Not enough time offer a conclusion but it looks good so far. This product is called "ZDDPlus" you can look it up on
zddplus@kirbanperformance.com. The nice thing is you can use this with any oil that you like.
3. Regular oils are getting harder to find that will fill this need. The Shell Rotella T seems to maintain it's level of the needed additives. As long as you can locate the CI-4 coding on the back of the bottle.
4. Another thing to keep in mind. Any pre-lube you put on in your engine in a location that does not receive oil under pressure, in other words splash lubricated, needs to be a product that will wash away quickly after the engine fires. This would include but not limited to your lobes, lifters, ends of push rods, rocker arm fulcrumes, rocker arm to valve tips. The reason for this is oil serves two purposes. To lubricate and, relative to this point, to remove heat. High fiction points like cam lobe to lifter interface is a strong case in point here. You need your assembly lubricant to get out of the way quickly and allow the motor oil to do it's cooing job here. I like the red stuff sold under various brands such as Clevite Cam Guard. If you are going to turn the engine over serveral times by hand during the assembly process and are running high spring pressures then I use Cranes assembly lube which has a graphite in it. Using this to just coat the entire suface of the mating parts but not drowned them with it. An oil change after 20 minutes run is is required with a graphite based assembly lube.
5. One last and very important point. Never use anything on the sides of the lifters other than a light weight lubricant such as the motor oil you are going to run in your engine. I have seen times when a heavy viscosity assembly lube has been used here with damaging results. That lifter needs to spin immediately upon fire up and a heavy lube can prevent this. No assembly lube can overcome a no spinning lifter / scuff. The cam is gone.
I hope this helps.
Concobra
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