Getting Close to Start Up-What else can I Screw Up?

[Rory428]

Big Boss, I ahve to agree with some of these other guys, you ask for advice, but when you don`t hear what you want to hear, you question the advice that YOU requested. I don`t post on here much, but I have been racing Fe`s for over 30 years now, and building my own engines for almost that long. Years ago, it was very uncommon for any Ford to flatten a cam lobe during break in, assuming that the engine was assembled and broken in properly. However, with the current engine oils, this is NOT the case! Until a couple of years ago, I NEVER had a FE cam go flat, but a 428SCJ I built ate a lobe after about 300 miles . The last 428 I built for my race car is an Oregon Cams solid lifter (dumb bell style) with over .650" lift. We broke the engine in on a dyno, with the inner springs removed, plenty of GM EOS (I stock piled plenty while it was still readily available), and the old formula Shell Rottela 15W-40 oil. After 30 minutes of break in on the dyno, we put the inner springs back in, changed the oil, made a few dyno pulls and got the carb jetting dialed in. I strongly reccomend spending the $$`s to have the engine run on a dyno, especially a flat tappet cam, because the valve springs are so much easier to chage than in a car. Also with the dyno, the coolant temp. can be regulated, so there are no worrys about overheating, plus any leaks or other minor (or major) problems are much easier to adress than with the engine installed in the car. Only you can decide if you want to roll the dice and take a chance. Also, assuming the cam break in does go OK, I don`t think you will be very happy with that camshaft with your compression ratio, but again, thats up to you.