360 break-in, first time ?'s

[SD_RED]

Well I've done a lot of searching this morning, (I have way too much free time at work some days ) but I still have some questions about break-in procedures and want to draw on the experience of some the good folks here.

First, the engine:

360 AMC, performer intake/carb, straight cylinders, (Less than 0.001" taper.) so just had them professionally honed. Block was already +.030". Re-ringed pistons with sealed power rings, chro-moly. New crank/rod/cam bearings. Polished crank. New ARP head bolts.

Stock exhaust mani's w/ 2.5" duals, X-flo dynomax muffler.

Howards Cams # 312481-11 w/ Rhoads superlube lifters. Howards Springs/retainers/locks. Re-used stock pushrods/rockers.

Valve job and check plane on heads and deck.

Summit HEI distributor and MSD wires. Bosch iridium fusion plugs.

Cleaned out stock radiator, flows good, no leaks. Flowkooler H2O pump and thermostat. Mechanical temp guage.

Oil pump rebuild kit from BJ's. Mechanical pressure guage. AMSOIL Ae filter and AMSOIL SAE30 break-in oil. Also installed a filter bypass to an oil cooler. Primed Oil pump, very good flow.

So now that that's all out there...

Howards Cams recommends the following break-in for the camshaft: Start engine, bring rpms immediately to 2000-2500, run for 20 minutes, drop to idle and run for 20 minutes, shut off engine, allow to cool, drain and change oil.

This differs from most of the engine break-in how-to's that I've read. I haven't seen a single one that recommends letting the engine idle for any period of time. Most say to start at 1500-2000 rpm and run it like that for at least 30 minutes.

Also, many of them say to retorque the head bolts after the initial run. How many of you have done this step? Is it really necessary with cast iron heads/block?

I'd like a run-down of what you all did to break in your rebuild, whether or not you had moly rings, and how long you have been running your engine without trouble since then.

Please throw in your $0.02.

[Ristow]

full groove or half groove mains? those rhoads lifters are going to penalize the oil pressure.

[FSJunkie]

I fired up my completely rebuilt engine in my driveway.

The biggest part of break-in is the camshaft. Make sure you have specialty engine break in oil or additive. I like using a fairly low viscosity converntional oil like 5W30 so it flows quickly on startup with a bottle of "Lucas TB Zinc Plus" engine break in additive. Do not use synthetic! It interfeers with break in since it is so slick. The cam needs that additive for break in. Make sure you have some kind of zinc additive in there at the least.

Take all preperations needed to make sure it fires up without much cranking. Have the carb adjusted the best you can and prime the fuel bowls. The less cranking the better, cranking wipes the assembly lube off the parts. (You did use some assembly lube, right?)

As soon as the engine fires, rev it up to 2000 RPM and hold it there for 20 minutes! After 20 minutes, vary the RPM's between 1000 and 3000 for the next 10 minutes or so, try not to idle it much. This is the camshaft break in procedure. Even if the engine runs horrible, sprews coolant, whatever, keep it running if possible for that time. of course, if it overheats dangerously or threatens to destroy itself, shut it off.

Some folks say to change the oil at this time, it's up to you, and it certainly doesn't hurt. You can go to a thicker viscosity oil at this time if you like. A new engine should never get more than 10W40. I recomend 10W30 for at least the first 3000 miles. keep the break in additive in the oil if you change it, the engine still needs it. You can tune the engine now, since you can shut it off.

Now to seat the piston rings to the cylinder walls. Drive at a resonable speed of about 40 MPH or so. Give it a good prod to the throttle. No need to floor it, but at least 1/2 down, after a second let off completely and coast back down. Do this repeatedly on-off-on-off for a dozen or so times. This action slaps the piston rings and compresses them repeatedly against the cylinder wall, seating them.

The last part of break-in is to drive it. Some say to treat a new engine like a newborn baby, but I say drive it the way you normally will for the rest of it's life. The conditions an engine is broken in under are the conditions it will run best under for the rest of it's life, more or less. This does not mean run floored all the time. The most important thing to look out for during this period is to vary the RPM's through the entire range. Never reving above 3000 RPM durng break in will create a ridge of sorts at that RPM level and when the engine hits that RPM later in life, it's not good for it. Run that engine from idle up near redline, saving the higher revs towards the end of the break in period. this procedure will ensure your engine is broken in at all RPM's and loads.

After 500 miles, the engine is sufficiently broken in to drive normally. The first 500 miles are when it should be broken in as described above. After that, things have smoothed out to the point where they will not break in anymore, they just age. For example, the honing on the bores has smoothed out and will not "grind" the rings to seat anymore. The engine oil should be changed at this time, especially if you did not do it after the cam break in.

Oil changes after the first 500 miles go as normal, 3000 miles. You can stop running the break in additive if you wish, though I don't recomend it. Look out for teething problems in the baby engine. Head gaskets, pan gaskets, and rear main seals tend to seep for the first 10,000 miles untill things settle in. Modern head gaskets don't normally require retorquing, but it doesn't hurt to do it anyway.

Since the first oil change, you've probably noticed alot of microscopic metal filings in the oil making it appear shimmery. These are from the breaking in parts and is normal. They are the reason why you change your oil often. They should be all or nearly gone at around 6000 miles, signaling the end of the wear-in process. You can switch to synthetic oil now if you wish.

You'll notice the engine gaining more power as it finishes wearing in. The idle will smooth out, fuel economy will increase, etc. They just sweeten up like a well used musical instrument.


10,000-100,000 is a well cared for 360's prime. Change the oil regularly, full tune ups every 6,000 miles, drive it easy when the engine is cold (90% of engine wear occurs after cold startup), use oil filters that do not backflow after shutoff (no oil when cold ), and it should last 200,000 miles. Make sure to blast it on the highway every month or so, 360's don't like constant low RPM commuting. They need to be pushed past 1/2 throttle and 3000 RPM occasnionally to clean things out.

Enjoy your engine. One last word of advice is to keep up on the cleaning. remember how horrible and disgusting it was to work on your greaseball of an ngine? It's all clean now, and it's mush easier to keep a clean engine clean than to clean a dirty one. 409 works well, as does automotive wax on the valve covers and air cleaner.
__________________________________________________ _________
Mine does not have moly rings. 12,000 miles on it since rebuild and it runs sweeter and seater every day. Synthetic oil with zinc additive since 6,000 miles. Head gaskets seep a tiny bit, but "Bars leaks Copper Block Seal" fixed that without any bad side effects. The rear main seeped for the first 10,000, but fixed itself. They break in slow with synthetic. All this settled out on my 327 by 3,000 miles since rebuild.

[SD_RED]

full groove or half groove mains? those rhoads lifters are going to penalize the oil pressure.

Uh-oh, educate me, Ristow: what's the difference between full/half groove? Mine are 1/2 groove for what it's worth.

[Ristow]

full groove lube the rods full time. ACL's are full groove. good for the rods,but proven they don't need it. i like half groove.

i was asking because full groove bearings and Rhoads w/Superlube would likely make for poor oil pressure.


you need to up the revs right away to break in the cam/lifters. they need a little rotating speed.

get the ignition dialed in close prior to starting. a lot of cams are wiped out from cranking too much due to failed starting attempts trying to find the ignition timing.

[SD_RED]

I fired up my completely rebuilt engine in my driveway.

The biggest part of break-in is the camshaft. Make sure you have specialty engine break in oil or additive. I like using a fairly low viscosity converntional oil like 5W30 so it flows quickly on startup with a bottle of "Lucas TB Zinc Plus" engine break in additive. Do not use synthetic! It interfeers with break in since it is so slick. The cam needs that additive for break in. Make sure you have some kind of zinc additive in there at the least.

Take all preperations needed to make sure it fires up without much cranking. Have the carb adjusted the best you can and prime the fuel bowls. The less cranking the better, cranking wipes the assembly lube off the parts. (You did use some assembly lube, right?)

As soon as the engine fires, rev it up to 2000 RPM and hold it there for 20 minutes! After 20 minutes, vary the RPM's between 1000 and 3000 for the next 10 minutes or so, try not to idle it much. This is the camshaft break in procedure. Even if the engine runs horrible, sprews coolant, whatever, keep it running if possible for that time. of course, if it overheats dangerously or threatens to destroy itself, shut it off.

Some folks say to change the oil at this time, it's up to you, and it certainly doesn't hurt. You can go to a thicker viscosity oil at this time if you like. A new engine should never get more than 10W40. I recomend 10W30 for at least the first 3000 miles. keep the break in additive in the oil if you change it, the engine still needs it. You can tune the engine now, since you can shut it off.

Now to seat the piston rings to the cylinder walls. Drive at a resonable speed of about 40 MPH or so. Give it a good prod to the throttle. No need to floor it, but at least 1/2 down, after a second let off completely and coast back down. Do this repeatedly on-off-on-off for a dozen or so times. This action slaps the piston rings and compresses them repeatedly against the cylinder wall, seating them.

The last part of break-in is to drive it. Some say to treat a new engine like a newborn baby, but I say drive it the way you normally will for the rest of it's life. The conditions an engine is broken in under are the conditions it will run best under for the rest of it's life, more or less. This does not mean run floored all the time. The most important thing to look out for during this period is to vary the RPM's through the entire range. Never reving above 3000 RPM durng break in will create a ridge of sorts at that RPM level and when the engine hits that RPM later in life, it's not good for it. Run that engine from idle up near redline, saving the higher revs towards the end of the break in period. this procedure will ensure your engine is broken in at all RPM's and loads.

After 500 miles, the engine is sufficiently broken in to drive normally. The first 500 miles are when it should be broken in as described above. After that, things have smoothed out to the point where they will not break in anymore, they just age. For example, the honing on the bores has smoothed out and will not "grind" the rings to seat anymore. The engine oil should be changed at this time, especially if you did not do it after the cam break in.

Oil changes after the first 500 miles go as normal, 3000 miles. You can stop running the break in additive if you wish, though I don't recomend it. Look out for teething problems in the baby engine. Head gaskets, pan gaskets, and rear main seals tend to seep for the first 10,000 miles untill things settle in. Modern head gaskets don't normally require retorquing, but it doesn't hurt to do it anyway.

Since the first oil change, you've probably noticed alot of microscopic metal filings in the oil making it appear shimmery. These are from the breaking in parts and is normal. They are the reason why you change your oil often. They should be all or nearly gone at around 6000 miles, signaling the end of the wear-in process. You can switch to synthetic oil now if you wish.

You'll notice the engine gaining more power as it finishes wearing in. The idle will smooth out, fuel economy will increase, etc. They just sweeten up like a well used musical instrument.


10,000-100,000 is a well cared for 360's prime. Change the oil regularly, full tune ups every 6,000 miles, drive it easy when the engine is cold (90% of engine wear occurs after cold startup), use oil filters that do not backflow after shutoff (no oil when cold ), and it should last 200,000 miles. Make sure to blast it on the highway every month or so, 360's don't like constant low RPM commuting. They need to be pushed past 1/2 throttle and 3000 RPM occasnionally to clean things out.

Enjoy your engine. One last word of advice is to keep up on the cleaning. remember how horrible and disgusting it was to work on your greaseball of an ngine? It's all clean now, and it's mush easier to keep a clean engine clean than to clean a dirty one. 409 works well, as does automotive wax on the valve covers and air cleaner.
__________________________________________________ _________
Mine does not have moly rings. 12,000 miles on it since rebuild and it runs sweeter and seater every day. Synthetic oil with zinc additive since 6,000 miles. Head gaskets seep a tiny bit, but "Bars leaks Copper Block Seal" fixed that without any bad side effects. The rear main seeped for the first 10,000, but fixed itself. They break in slow with synthetic. All this settled out on my 327 by 3,000 miles since rebuild.

Well put. Thanks for the input, and yes, I was generous with the assembly lube, also AMSOIL brand. The machinist who honed my cylinders left a thin oily film on the walls too, -I've read this is important to help seat the rings and not destroy them.

I can't wait to hear it grumble. I'm taking a week of paid leave from work next week to make sure I have time to finish everything up right and not get impatient. I gotta admit, I'm pretty nervous about having all this hard work blow up in my face. I'm really excited to see it perform well. I had no idea until I tore off the heads that the tapping I heard was not in the valve train, but rather the fact that 2 of the exhaust valve grooves burnt in almost al the way to the center. One of the heads had a pretty deap crack, but I found a set of donor heads from an '87 had had them redone.

Thanks!

[SD_RED]

get the ignition dialed in close prior to starting. a lot of cams are wiped out from cranking too much due to failed starting attempts trying to find the ignition timing.

^and on that note: I forgot to secure down the distributor before I started turning the crank to bolt the flex-plate to the TC, and it walked up off of the cam gear. So, even though the balancer is lined up to TDC, I don't know if it's TDC on the exhaust or compression stroke. Is there an easy way to tell without pulling parts off?

[Ristow]

yeah. loosen plug #1 most of the way out of the hole,and turn the motor over with a wrench until it hisses. it'll be coming up on compression stroke at that point. helps to pull the other plugs out to reduce compresion.

[joe]

Don't confuse cam break-in with motor break-in. Yeah first you'll need to break-in the cam according to manufactures recommendations. Then you'll need to break the motor in. Lotsa theories on this. I run straight 30w oil for break-in. Old school thought is don't run over 50mph for first 500-1,000 miles but I don't think 50,55,60 matters. Point being don't get into the upper RPM range and don't drive at any constant speed. Vary your speeds often. What I like to do is run up to road speed be it 50 or whatever in high gear. then back off down to 30 or so(still in high gear). Not too low where when you slowly add gas to get back to 50 in high gear that you lug the motor(don't lug the motor). I do that drill about a dozen times. Gives both edges of the rings a chance to wear in a little. That does not break the motor in. Just sort of like a pre break-in for the real break-in. I change the oil and filter at about 100-200 miles still to 30w till 500 miles. I'll re torque the head(s) at about 200 miles depending on the motor(car or bike). Up till at least 500 miles keep the rpms out of the the upper range and most of all "Vary your speeds".
At 500 I change oil and filter again to what I intend to run normally, re torque the head(s), good time to re torque the exh manifolds too. From there drive as you would normally and go with your normal maint intervals.
I'm no pro builder so haven't done dozens of motors but the above has always worked well for me on car and motorcycle motors.
Out of all the above ramblings IMHO the key factor during break-in is "don't run at any constant speed for any length of time, vary your speeds."

[SD_RED]

yeah. loosen plug #1 most of the way out of the hole,and turn the motor over with a wrench until it hisses. it'll be coming up on compression stroke at that point. helps to pull the other plugs out to reduce compresion.

Good idea. Yeah that sucker was almost impossible to turn before remembering to take the plugs out when I was mating it to the tranny. With the plugs out it turned like butter.

Out of all the above ramblings IMHO the key factor during break-in is "don't run at any constant speed for any length of time, vary your speeds."

Yeah, that's been the running theme everywhere I've read so far.